Ayla Erduran
Turkish violinist Ayla Erduran was born in Istanbul on 22 August 1934. She began violin lessons at the age of four and studied music intensely during her childhood. She studied violin at the Paris Conservatoire (1946-51) and then privately in the USA (1951-5) with Zino Francescatti and Ivan Galamian, then at the Moscow Conservatory with David Ositrakh (1957-8). She came fifth in the 1957 Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition in Warsaw. Amongst other awards and honours, she won the 1970 Netherlands Beethoven Award and in 1971 became a Republic of Türkiye State Artist.
Her career included giving the first performance of the violin concerto by Turkish composer Ulvi Cemal Erkin (1906-72) which took place in Belgium in 1958, with the composer conducting. In 1965, to honour the centenary of Jean Sibelius' birth, she played the Finnish composer's Violin Concerto in Geneva, with Ernest Ansermet conducting the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
She undertook major tours of Africa, Azerbaijan, Canada, Europe, India, the Middle East, Russia, South America, Türkiye and the USA.
Ayla Erduran (1934-2025)
Her performances received radio broadcasts in Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, Iraq, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Switzerland, UK and the USA.
From 1973 until the 1990s she taught violin in Switzerland, at the Lausanne Conservatory and at the Conservatoire Populaire in Geneva.
She recorded the Johannes Brahms Violin Concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Carlos Païta in 1985 for the Lodia label.
Evin Ilyasoglu's 2002 biographical novel Would You Listen to Ayla? told the story of Erduran's life.
Ayla Erduran died in Istanbul on 7 January 2025, aged ninety.