Emre Elivar

Emre Elivar — Biography

Emre Elivar, born on 21 August 1976 in Ankara, is a Turkish concert pianist. He began his studies at the Ankara State Conservatory before a DAAD scholarship took him to the "Carl Maria von Weber" academy in Dresden and the "Hanns Eisler" academy in Berlin, where he earned his master's degree and the title "Konzertpianist." During his studies and early career he won a string of international prizes, including a triple award in Bremen (1999), a bronze medal in Porto (1999), a bronze medal at the World Piano Competition in Cincinnati (2000), the Steinway Prize (2001), the Arthur Schnabel Prize (2002) and the Vendôme Prize (2003).

Career highlights include the first complete Turkish performance of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier Book 1 at the Istanbul International Music Festival in 2005, a 2008 "Great Variations" recital of works by Mendelssohn, Brahms and Beethoven at the same festival, and his 2009 US debut in Washington DC devoted to rarely performed Schumann and Chopin works. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras such as the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Bilkent Symphony and the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic, and his recordings — including a double album of Beethoven's last three sonatas and the Diabelli Variations, and a Sony BMG disc of Schubert and Schumann — drew wide critical acclaim. In 2010 his concert marking Schumann's 200th birthday was broadcast live by 50 member stations of the European Broadcasting Union.

Based in Bursa since 2019, where he teaches at Uludağ University's State Conservatory, Elivar continued performing in 2026: he gave a duo concert with Başar Can Kıvrak in Bursa in April, and in July his performance of Brahms concertos in Germany drew widespread praise.