Ferhan & Ferzan Önder
GEN
Born
Tokat | Turkey
Studies
Vienna, Ankara
Highlights
ECHO Klassik Prize "Vivaldi Reflections" 2002 since 2003 UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors
Prizes
1st Prize International Pianoduo-competition Hamburg (Germany) Concorso Pianistico Internazionale Alessandro Casagrande (Jury Special Award)
Recordings
Carmina Burana - Live at SHMF 2011 (Sony, 2011)
1001 Nights (EMI Classics, 2003)
Vivaldi Reflections (EMI Classics, 2001)
Saint-Saëns (PAN CLASSICS; 1998)
Short biography
Born in Tokat (Turkey) Ferhan & Ferzan Önder started playing the piano at age ten. Four years later, they would win the „Jury Special Award” at the International Duo Competition in Terni (Italy). After a series of further prizes, Ferhan & Ferzan Önder won the First Prize at the International Piano Duo Competition in Hamburg.

In 1985 the twins decided to move to Austria. They studied at the Academy of Music in Vienna with Noel Flores and Paul Badura-Skoda. Shortly before their final exams they met Alfons Kontarsky who became their mentor and a close friend until his death.

Extensive concert tours have then taken the pianists through all of Europe, the Far East and America. They have performed among others at the Wigmore Hall London, Semperoper Dresden, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein and Konzerthaus Vienna as well as in Barcelona, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo or Taipei.

Ferhan & Ferzan Önder have been invited to perform at various music festivals: Rheingau Musik Festival, Salzburg Festival, Beethoven Festival Bonn, Wiener Festwochen, Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Sommets Musicaux Gstaad or Festspielen Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In 2003, they performed with Sir Peter Ustinov at the Voestival in Linz. Similar musical-literary projects led to collaboration with Cornelia Froboess, Armin Müller-Stahl, Friedrich von Thun and Roger Willemsen.

Ferhan & Ferzan perform regularly with major orchestras like Staatskapelle Dresden or Mozarteum Orchestra and have collaborated with conductors as John Axelrod, Howard Griffiths, Stefan Vladar or Hugo Wolff.

Their first CD release with EMI marked their break through with the CD “Vivaldi Reflections” which also won the coveted ECHO KLASSIK. Their next CD was a “1001 nights” (EMI, 2003) with adaptations of Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Balakirev and Mozart. In 2011 a live recording of their concert of Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” for choir, soloists, two pianos and percussion at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival had been published with Sony.

In October 2013 Ferhan & Ferzan Önder played the world premier of Fazil Say’s „Gezi Park 1“ piano concerto together with NDR Radiophilharmonie.

Ferhan & Ferzan Oender are living in Vienna. Since 2003 they have been appointed “Goodwill Ambassadors” of UNICEF.

2014/2015
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