A musician of “refined restraint” (Third Coast Review), pianist Evren Ozel performs extensively throughout the United States and abroad, combining fluent virtuosity and probing interpretations. He received a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2022 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant and is currently represented by Concert Artists Guild.
Since his debut at age 11 with the Minnesota Orchestra, Evren has been a featured soloist with The Cleveland Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, and The Orchestra Now at Bard College, with conductors Jahja Ling, Courtney Lewis, and Leon Botstein. In 2024, he recorded Mozart concerti with RSO-Wien and conductor Howard Griffiths to be released on Alpha Classics.
Evren performs recitals at important venues across the US, including The Gilmore’s Wellspring Theater and Harvard Musical Association. In 2021, he delivered a critically-acclaimed Chopin recital at the Ordway in St. Paul for the Schubert Club and Chopin Society of Minnesota. In 2024, he makes his recital debut at Boston’s Jordan Hall.
An esteemed chamber musician, Evren performs at Marlboro Festival and ChamberFest Cleveland, and with artists like Franklin Cohen, Zlatomir Fung, Hsin-Yun Huang, Geneva Lewis, and Peter Wiley. He’s performed on Marlboro tours at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and New York’s Carnegie Hall. Most recently, he was selected as a 2024-27 Bowers Program Artist for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Evren’s first piano teacher was Cindy Malmin in Minneapolis. He later studied for seven years with Paul Wirth, and then moved to Massachusetts in 2014 to study with Wha Kyung Byun at Walnut Hill School and New England Conservatory Preparatory School. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from New England Conservatory and is currently enrolled in their Artist Diploma Program, under the tutelage of Wha Kyung Byun. Other important mentors include Jonathan Biss, Imogen Cooper, Richard Goode, András Schiff, and Mitsuko Uchida.