THE ARTISTS
 

Marie Hallynck - cello

Confirmed soloist, chamber musician and passionate pedagogue, Marie Hallynck is one of the essential cellists of her generation.
Her steps have taken her to venues as prestigious as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Wigmore Hall in London, the Symphony Hall in Birmingham, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Théâtre de la Ville and the City of Music in Paris, the Philharmonie of Cologne, Berlin to name a few.
We find her as a soloist with the Philharmonic Orchestra of St-Petersburg, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Rotterdam, the Chamber Orchestra of the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the Orchester National de Lille, the Orchester Hong Kong Chinese Philharmonic… or alongside pianists Cédric Tiberghien, Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden and Muhiddin Dürrüoglu.
It was in the company of the latter, clarinettist Ronald Van Spaendonck and Sophie Hallynck, harpist, that she founded the Kheops ensemble in 2006, which brings together a dozen musicians including Ning Kam, Tatiana Samouil, Lise Berthaud and Gaby Van Laugh. Their discography extends from Beethoven to contemporary composers, as evidenced by the Fugitives album dedicated to the works of the ensemble's pianist-composer (Cyprès 2019).
Trained by Félicien Doyen, Reine Flachot, Edmond Baert, Janos Starker and Natalia Gutman, Marie Hallynck has distinguished herself in numerous competitions and received various awards, including a prize at the famous Eurovision Classical Music Tournament and at the Tromp Competition (Eindhoven ), honorary degrees from the Mozarteum in Salzburg and the Accademia Chigiana in Siena and the prize from the Belgian Vocation Foundation. She is also a laureate of the Juventus association and the Emile Bernheim foundation.
She was also voted “Rising Star” by the Association of European Concert Halls (2001) and “Soloist of the Year” by the Belgian Music Press Union (2002).
His numerous recordings published by Harmonia Mundi, Fuga libera, Cyprès, Alpha, Naxos, Ricercar, and Musique en Wallonie have earned him the highest awards in the specialized press. Her latest recording (Warner Classics) is devoted to Dirk Brossé's concerto, which she performs as a soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra under the composer's baton.
Alongside her concert activities, Marie Hallynck has been teaching at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels since the age of 19. She is also invited to sit on the jury of international competitions (ARD Münich, Queen Elisabeth Competition).

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Çağıl Cansu Şanlıdağ - piano

Cansu Sanlidag is a passionate artist with a sparkling and warm personality, character traits that are reflected in her sound, rich in colors and emotions.
Graduated in 2018 from the Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Vienna (MDW), Sanlidag is an artist who has distinguished herself by her passion for exploring forgotten repertoires. In 2020, with the violinist Philippe Graffin, she recorded an unpublished work by Eugène Ysaÿe as well as a work by Chausson with the Quatuor Karski. The following year, his recordings of unpublished works for solo piano by Joseph Franck and Mél Bonis were noticed.
To the exploration of the repertoire is added the pleasure of playing and supporting many musicians. She is thus led to accompany the participants of the Buchet, Grumiaux and International Music Academy Forte Competitions,  but also of the Masterclasses of Anne Gastinel, Jeroen Reuling, Olsi Leka, Justus Grimm, or again Philippe Graffin.
Active in Belgium, where it regularly performs in many cities and many halls (Bozar, Flagey, La Boverie, etc.), Sanlidag is also internationally oriented, playing, among others, in Paris, Vienna, London, Florence or even Montevideo.
A committed artist, she regularly questions the methods of musical transmission. To this end, she founded in 2019, with musicologist Xavier Falques, the Ensemble Logos. A variable-geometry musical ensemble integrating the chamber music repertoire into a narrative and visual framework. Their project Spleen and Illumination, dedicated to the figures of Verlaine and Rimbaud, is a success with the public, especially for its intimate and personal dimension.
Besides Markus Hadulla, with whom she finished her studies at the MDW (Vienna), Sanlidag studied with Aleksandar Madzar and Dalia Ouziel and was able to benefit from the advice of many renowned musicians, such as Anne-Sofie von Otter, Julius Drake, Mitsuko Shirai or even Hartmut Höll.
Since 2019, she is a professor at the Near-East University of Nicosia.

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Pierre Fontenelle - cello

“Without a doubt, Pierre Fontenelle has the makings of great artists: those who neither compartmentalize nor denigrate anything or anyone. Curious, generous, attentive, lively and brilliant, he recounts the music with great detail, cheerfully carried away by his passion” (Musiq'3)

Pierre Fontenelle, former cello-soloist of the Royal Opera of Wallonia-Liège and Namurois of the Year 2020, is a young Belgian musician with an atypical career, deploying his career as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral musician both in Belgium and abroad. internationally. 1st Prize at the 2022 Breughel Competition, he also won the Public Prize and the Prize for Best Interpretation. At the 2019 Edmond Baert International Cello Competition, he received the 1st Prize as well as the Feldbusch Prize, and received the 2nd “Van Hecke” Prize at the Belgium Cello Society International Competition.

At the age of 20, Pierre joined the Opéra Royal de Wallonie-Liège as cello-soloist in 2019 under the direction of Speranza Scappucci, thus becoming the youngest permanent musician in the orchestra. At the same time, he is guest conductor or guest cello-soloist with the Belgian National Orchestra, the Orchester Philharmonique de Liège, the Orchester Philharmonique de Luxembourg, the Orchester National de Bordeaux-Aquitaine...

He has already played as a soloist with several ensembles (Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Chapelle Musicale de Tournai, Musique Militaire Grand-Ducale, Musique Royale des Guides...) and in numerous halls and festivals in Belgium and abroad ( China, Taiwan, Slovenia, Croatia, Netherlands...).

Also passionate about composition, popular and contemporary music, he created with accordionist Cristian Perciun the Duo Made in Belgium (1st Prize at the Accordé'Opale International Competition). In 2020, Luxembourg accordionist Frin Wolter takes up the torch – the Duo is renamed Duo Kiasma.

After beginning as an autodidact at the age of 11 in the United States, then studies at the Luxembourg Conservatory, he joined the IMEP in Namur. After a first Master's degree, he specialized in the Soviet repertoire with Han Bin Yoon at the Mons Conservatory and then continued to perfect his skills in Paris with Anne Gastinel in the Debussy class (2022-2023) at the Jaroussky Academy. He is currently a cello teacher at the IMEP (Namur).

Pierre plays a Nicolas-François Vuillaume cello from 1860, made available by the King Baudouin Foundation thanks to the generosity of the Léon Courtin-Marcel Bouché Fund and the Strings for Talent Foundation.

He is very fond of the sock fashion and, since the pandemic, he has discovered a voracious passion for poetry, both in reading and writing. He founded the Concerts des Dames at the Abbey of Notre-Dame du Vivier (Marche-les-Dames) in August 2020.

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Philippe Graffin - violin

First prize at the CNSM in Paris at the age of 16, philippe Graffin continued his studies with Josef Gingold in the United States, who was a pupil of Ysaye, as well as with philippe Hirschhorn.

Philippe Graffin is Laureate of the Fritz Kreisler competition in Austria where Lord Menuhin discovered him and invited him to record 

his first record in London under his direction.

Since then he has been invited as a soloist by many European orchestras. 

His particularly rich discography is acclaimed by international critics and includes   already a   forty recordings including more than thirty concertos.

several composers wrote especially for him, notably Rodion Shchedrin,   from the Lithuanian composer Vytautas Barkauskas, Philippe Hersant, David Matthews, Yves Prin, Peter Fribbins, Nicola Campogrande in particular.

 Philippe has presented on stage and on disc  many forgotten works, some of which have found their way into the repertoire. 

Such as the Chamber version of Chausson's poem, the concerto by black English composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor, which he recorded in South Africa and performed at the Proms in London, works for violin and orchestra by Joseph Canteloube, Ernest Guiraud, Joseph  Jongen, the violin concerto by Gabriel Fauré, as well as numerous virtuoso works such as recently the seventh sonata for solo violin by Eugene Ysaye. 

He has participated in several documentaries, “Ysaye is not dead”, for the RTBF, “Frédérick Delius“ for the BBC, “a la recherche de la sonata de Vinteuil” for Arte, and directed his own documentary “ysaye's secret sonata ” available on YouTube.

Chamber musician philippe   is invited to the Lincoln Center Chamber music society, New York, at the Wigmore hall in London where he is curator on several occasions of various festivals around Ysaye, Ravel and Chausson, as well as at the Gstaad festival in Switzerland, at the pablo Casals festival in Prades or that of Prussia cove, in Cornwall.

he is the founder of “consonances" festival, in St Nazaire in France,   which he directed for 25 years, as well as the most recent “Ysaye 's knokke” festival in Belgium._cc781905-5cde -3194-bb3b-136bad5cf58d_

Finally, in 2018, philippe created the   “traces” festival in Brussels, which   has the mission of bringing to life works by composers who disappeared during the holocaust.

Philippe has also opened his music to collaborations with other arts, in particular an exceptional project with Gerard Depardieu, “the night belongs to us”, produced with the musiq 3 festival,  , of which a documentary was produced by the RTBF, as well as “the hidden fairy”, a show written for Marie Christinne Barrault and intended for children.

Philippe Graffin plays a Domenico Busano violin, Venice, 1730, and teaches at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and at the CNSM in Paris.

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Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu - piano

Pianist, composer, pedagogue, Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu is a multifaceted musician, endowed with an extraordinary artistic personality.
His concerts as a pianist take him to a large number of countries in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Among the festivals where he performs are the Festival de Wallonie, Festival van Vlaanderen, Ars Musica, Festival Musiq3, Klara Festival, Beethovenfest, Istanbul Festival, Lichfield Festival, Lille Piano Festival…
A particularly appreciated chamber musician, Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu counts among his many partners the clarinettist Ronald Van Spaendonck and the cellist Marie Hallynck with whom he founded the Ensemble Kheops, a variable-geometry ensemble bringing together musicians such as Ning Kam, Tatiana Samouil, Sophie Hallynck, Lise Berthaud...
Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu is Professor of Chamber Music at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels and is also regularly invited to give piano lessons and masterclasses in Turkey, Belgium and the United States (Indiana University, Jacobs School of Music).
Admitted from the age of eleven to the Ankara Conservatory, Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu received lessons there from the eminent pedagogue Kamuran Gündemir for the piano and Ilhan Baran, a disciple of Henri Dutilleux, for composition and musical theory. At the age of 18, Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu moved to Belgium to continue his dual training with Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden (piano) and Jacqueline Fontyn (composition) at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels then at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel (for the piano) including he graduated in 1992, with a diploma in virtuosity with great distinction. He then began a doctorate at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington (USA) with Edward Auer (piano) and Donald Freund (composition).
During his years of study, Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu distinguished himself above all as a pianist (European Piano Competition 1991, Nany Philippart Competition 1992, Belgian Vocation Foundation 1995, J. and W. Pelemans Prize awarded by the Belgian Union of Composers for its contribution to the dissemination of the national repertoire). From 1993, he also began to be recognized as a composer: his "Six Preludes" for piano earned him the Arthur De Greef Prize from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Letters and Sciences of Belgium and "Contact » for flute and piano, the cut of the musical creation of the Academy of Lutèce in Paris. In 1996, he won the Sabam Prize for “Contact 2” in the Muizelhuiskoncerten competition and in 2000, he received the André Chevillion – Yvonne Bonnaud Prize from the Fondation de France for “Le Tourneur”. Two of his works are again awarded prizes in international composition competitions: "Nebula" receives the Irène Fuérison Prize and "Varioactivity" the 2nd Prize in the Hulste competition.
Its discographic repertoire includes works by Beethoven, Dohnanyi, Schnittke, Bernstein, Gershwin… while leaving a special place for contemporary composers.
His latest recording, the album “fugitives” published by Cyprès in the fall of 2019, is dedicated to his own chamber music compositions performed by the Kheops ensemble.

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Salih Can Gevrek - piano

Salih Can Gevrek, born in Turkey, started taking piano lessons at the age of 5. He was accepted into the preparatory school of the Faculty of Music and Drama at Bilkent University at the age of 7. He continued his studies at Bilkent University with Gulnara Aziz until 2011 when he was accepted into the Royal College of Music in London. He graduated as an artist at the Royal College of Music with Dmitri Alexeev and worked actively at the Queen Elizabeth Music Chapel as artist-in-residence with Louis Lortie.
His success in international competitions began at the age of 10, when he received a prize at the International Competition for Young Pianists at Eskisehir Anadolu University. His success continued with 2nd Prize in the Lubomir Pipkov International Piano Competition in Bulgaria, Winner of the Moscow State Conservatory International Piano Competition and 1st Prize in the Kamuran Gundemir Piano Competition. He also received the "Selcuk-Kamuran Gundemir" special prize and performed Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra. He recently won 1st Prize at the Gumusluk International Piano Competition and received 3rd Prize and the Scriabin Special Prize at the Lyon International Piano Competition in France.
As a soloist, he has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra of Belgium, the Chamber Orchestra of Wallonia, (INSO) the Lviv Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Ankara and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra. He has also given recitals at international music festivals, such as the Granada Music Festival in Spain, the Bolzano Piano Festival, the Amiata Festival, the Musical Summits of Gstaad, Villa Musica in Germany, the Antalya Piano Festival, Madrid "Music Above the Park" Music Festival, Sala Argenta, Palacio de Festivales de Cantabria, Santander, Worcester Three Choirs Festival, Bosch Young Classical Musicians Festival, and the Ankara Classical Music Festival. His solo recital at the 2011 Ankara Music Festival was highly praised and broadcast live on national radios in Spain and Turkey. Salih has performed at famous venues such as Berlin Philharmonic Chamber Hall, Wigmore Hall, Cadogan Hall, BOZAR, Flagey, St Martin-in-the-Fields, Lviv Philharmonic Hall, Bridgewater Hall , the Steinway Hall, the Steinway 160th Anniversary 'Arabesque' Launch, the Amaryllis Fleming Hall of the Royal College of Music, the Joseph Joachim Concert Hall, the Salle Moliere de Lyon.
He also played chamber music with Miklos Pereyni, Mate Szucs, Alexander Sitkovetski, Boris Garlitsky, Alexander Huelshoff, Avo Koyoumdijan, Julia Pusker.
His first CD 'Concerto without orchestra' will contain works by Bach, Schumann, Chopin and F.Liszt will be available in 2023.