Special Presentation: Evren Ozel, piano, co-presented with the Frederic Chopin Society

The Chopin Society and Schubert Club will partner to co-present an all-Chopin recital with pianist Evren Ozel on September 12 before he competes at the prestigious XVIII International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw.

IMPORTANT SAFETY UPDATE: To ensure the safety of all our patrons, masks will be required as well as proof of either full COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test result taken within 72 hours prior to attending. In addition to these measures, we will be observing social distancing in the concert hall by assigning seats upon arrival. For more information on Schubert Club’s commitment to safety, click here. 

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

In March of 2020, Minnesota’s Evren Ozel was awarded Second Prize and special prizes for Best Mazurka and Best Polonaise at the US National Chopin Competition in Miami. In doing so, he secured entry to the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland. Normally this world-renowned event would have taken place in October 2020, but because of the pandemic was rescheduled for October of 2021. This year, Evren also was awarded first place and the Dorothy Ode Mayeske Scholarship Award at Schubert Club’s Bruce P. Carlson Virtual Scholarship Competition.

This concert will be held at the Ordway Concert Hall in St. Paul.

ABOUT EVREN OZEL

Evren, 22, began his musical studies at age 3 in his hometown of Minneapolis. He started with lessons in the Suzuki program at the MacPhail Center, then continued for seven years with Dr. Paul Wirth. From the age 5, Evren’s love of piano was nurtured by regularly attending Chopin Society concerts with his parents, Burcin Ozel and Tadeusz Majewski, both active members of the Society’s board. At age 15, his schooling moved to Boston, where he studied with Wha Kyung Byun, first at the Walnut Hill School, and then at New England Conservatory. He graduated from NEC in May of 2021 and will enter its Master’s program in the fall. At NEC, Evren won first place in the Honors Piano Competition in 2018 and achieved further recognition by winning the 2016 Boston Symphony Concerto Competition and taking second prize at the 2018 Dublin Competition. He has won nearly every top prize for young musicians in Minnesota, including this year’s first place and the Dorothy Ode Mayeske Scholarship Award at Schubert Club’s Bruce P. Carlson Scholarship Competition. In the summers of 2018 and 2019, he participated in the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont. Additional chamber music experience includes ChamberFest Cleveland, New York’s Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players, Chamber Music Live! at Queen’s College, and the Mellon Music Festival in Davis, California. During the pandemic year, his senior year at NEC, he gave live-streamed recitals for the Foundation for Chinese Performing Arts in Boston, the Paderewski Festival in Raleigh, NC, and Gilmore’s Rising Stars Series in Kalamazoo, MI, among others. Evren is represented by Concert Artists Guild, as an Ambassador Prize winner of CAG’s 2021 Victor Elmaleh Virtual Competition.

Co-presented with the Frederic Chopin Society