Turkish cellist Efe Baltacıgil was acclaimed by audiences and critics alike in February 2005 when he and pianist Emanuel Ax performed Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No.1 at a Philadelphia Orchestra concert with only 10 minutes of rehearsal. Mr.Baltacigil, the Orchestra’s Associate Principal Cellist, and Mr. Ax, the evening’s soloist, were called upon when a winter snowstorm prevented most of the Orchestra from reaching the concert hall. After that performance,
The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: “Baltacigil is a highly individualized solo artist. His gorgeous sound, strong personality, and expressive depth suggest an artist about to have a major career.”

Mr. Baltacigil won the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He was also awarded The Peter Jay Sharp Prize, which presented his New York debut in December 2005, and the Washington Performing Arts Society Prize, which presented his Washington, DC, debut in April 2006.

This season, he also debuts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. He appears at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in Richard Goode’s Perspectives series and gives performances at the Philadelphia Academy of Music, the Curtis Institute of Music, the North Dakota Museum of Art, Mayville State University (ND), and the Buffalo Chamber Music Society.

Mr. Baltacigil has performed the Brahms Sextet with Pinchas Zukerman, Midori and Yo-Yo Ma at Carnegie Hall for Isaac Stern’s memorial, and participated in Mr. Ma’s Silk Road Project. He has also appeared as soloist in the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Curtis Chamber Orchestra conducted by Otto-Werner Mueller. He has toured with Musicians from Marlboroand is a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two.

Mr. Baltacigil was born in Istanbul, Turkey. He started studying the violin at the age of five and changed to the cello at the age of seven. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Mimar Sinan University Conservatory in Istanbul in 1998 and an Artist Diploma from The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 2002, where he studied with Peter Wiley and David Soyer. He was the recipient of The Curtis Institute’s Jacqueline DuPré Scholarship.