Burak Özdemir

Bassoonist and composer Burak Ozdemir is a fascinating and exciting musician, both in classical music as well as the underground electronic scene. His playing has been hailed by the New York Times as “More than energetic”. In 2008, he founded critically acclaimed Musica Sequenza, an ensemble to break the walls around classical performance, an aim in which he has been eminently successful with his exotic and virtuoso playing and the intercultural productions he brings to life with his Ensemble Musica Sequenza.

Burak‘s musical activities have taken him around the world, including Europe, North and South America, and Asia. His solo performances around the globe have taken place in well-renowned concert halls, such as Elbphilharmonie, Peter J Sharp Theater in New York, Berlin Philharmonic, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Wiener Staatsoper, and Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. He is a resident artist at Berghain, Radial System V, Sophien Church and Kammgarn, winning the acclaim of connoisseurs of classical music and the younger listeners worldwide.

Alongside his work with Ensemble Musica Sequenza, Burak performs regularly with numerous historical and modern orchestras as L’arte del mondo, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Deutsches Sinfonie Orchester and Film Orchester Babelsberg. As a soloist, he has appeared with the Istanbul Philharmonic, Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, and Les Arts Florissants under the baton of William Christie, Nicholas McGegan, and Krzysztof Penderecki. He works with international artists including Sasha Waltz, Matthew Herbert, Jordi Savall, Mari Kimura (IRCAM), Fazil Say, Monica Hugget, Andreas Scholl, Rias Kammerchor, Lars Vogt and Edita Gruberova.

Burak was awarded the following first prizes; Turkey Young Talents Competition, Istanbul Jazz Festival Young Selection, Juilliard Concerto Competition and Paul Hindemith Foundation Composers Selection. His compositions were commissioned by institutes as Early Music Biennale, Grand Palais Museum Paris, International BachFestival Switzerland, Handel Stiftung Halle, Borusan Culture, Radial Stiftung, American Turkish Society, DAAD, Tokyo Art Foundation, Gustav Kettel Foundation and Festival d’Avignon to name a few.

Since 2012 Burak Özdemir records exclusively for Sony Music and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi Labels. As a teacher, he gives baroque bassoon lessons at the music school in Berlin and is a workshop coach for baroque players and chamber orchestras. Burak was born in Istanbul. He studied at the Juilliard School in New York, the University of the Arts in Berlin, and at The Istanbul Conservatory.