CEM BABACAN
PIANO
Cem Babacan was born in 1988 in Ankara. After winning the first prize at the Yves Nat International Piano Competition (France) in 2007, he gave his first recital in Europe at the International Serignan Piano Festival. In 2008, he performed at the Steinway Hall in New York upon invitation. That same year, Babacan also won the Yamaha Scholarship Award. After completing his education at Hacettepe University State Conservatory with the top honors in both his department and faculty, he continued his piano studies at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory under Alexander Mndoyants and his assistant Ekaterina Mechetina. During his four years of education there, he won first prizes in all competitions he entered, including the 2nd National Kamuran Gündemir Piano Competition (2011), the 1st National Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory Piano Competition (2012), and the Gümüşlük A.A. Saygun Piano Competition (2013). In August 2014, he won third prize at the Puigcerda Piano Competition (Spain).
In the spring of 2012, he made a notable debut recital at the Tonhalle in Zurich, Switzerland, one of Europe’s most prestigious venues, earning acclaim from the audience and the Swiss press. Following this recital, he was invited to perform as a soloist with the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester in Berlin, Germany. In June of the same year, he graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory with the highest distinction, the “red diploma.”
Babacan has performed in renowned venues such as Steinway Hall in London, the Rachmaninov Hall of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, and the Auditorium Monceau Assurances de Vendome (Vendome, France). He has also appeared in festivals such as Festival Classics (Switzerland), Les Amis De La Musique En Vendomois, the Antalya Piano Festival, the International Bodrum Gümüşlük Classical Music Festival, and the IKSEV International İzmir Festival. He has performed as a soloist with orchestras including the Presidential Symphony Orchestra, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Ankara Youth Symphony Orchestra, Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra, Karşıyaka Municipality Chamber Orchestra, Hacettepe University Symphony Orchestra, Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality Symphony Orchestra, İzmir State Symphony Orchestra, Bursa Regional Symphony Orchestra, Antalya State Symphony Orchestra, Filarmoni Antalya, Orchestra Academic Başkent, Gazi Youth Chamber Orchestra, and Mersin Opera Orchestra.
In 2018, Babacan performed and recorded the world premieres of Cem Oslu’s Piano Concerto and Ateş Pars’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the İzmir Festival Orchestra and Hacettepe Symphony Orchestra, respectively. That same year, he, along with pianist Başar Can Kıvrak, performed the Turkish premiere of M. Bruch’s Concerto for Two Pianos with the Presidential Symphony Orchestra. He is currently an Associate Professor in the faculty of the Maltepe University Conservatory in Istanbul. Babacan is also a member of the Keyboard Charitable Trust in London and continues to perform and participate in projects both nationally and internationally.