SEMPRE Chamber Music: Efe Baltacigil & Friends

Cellist Efe Baltacigil recently made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Sir Simon Rattle alongside his brother Fora. He also performed Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations with the Seattle Symphony, after which the Seattle Times described his "sublimely natural, so easily virtuosic, phenomenal, effortless musicianship." Recent performances include Brahms's Double Concerto with violinist David Coucheron and the Norwegian Radio Orchestra and Richard Strauss's Don Quixote with the Seattle Symphony. He was a 2006 Avery Fisher Career Grant recipient, named 2013 String Player of the Year in Turkey, and, as a member of the European Concert Hall Association's Rising Stars program, he performed at Carnegie Hall and toured Europe in the 2006-08 seasons. Winner of the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, he made his recital debut under its aegis at Zankel Hall. He has appeared with Pinchas Zukerman and Yo-Yo Ma at Carnegie Hall, participated in Ma's Silk Road Project, and will perform at the Marlboro Festival. A member of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra, he was the associate principal cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra until 2011 and is currently the principal cellist of the Seattle Symphony. He received his bachelor's degree from the Mimar Sinan University Conservatory in Istanbul and earned his artist diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music. An alum of The Bowers Program (formerly CMS Two), Mr. Baltacigil plays a Francesco Rugieri cello made in Cremona in 1680 and given to him by a Turkish sponsor.

Photo by: Deniz Kursunlu

In all roles, from soloist to chamber musician to conductor, Benjamin Hochman regards music as vital and essential. Composers, fellow musicians, orchestras, and audiences recognize his deep commitment to insightful programming and performances of quality. Born in Jerusalem in 1980, Hochman’s musical foundation is laid in his teenage years. Claude Frank at the Curtis Institute of Music and Richard Goode at the Mannes School of Music prove defining influences. At the invitation of Mitsuko Uchida, he spends three formative summers at the Marlboro Music Festival. At 24, Hochman debuts as a soloist with the Israel Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall conducted by Pinchas Zukerman. Orchestral appearances follow with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago and Pittsburgh Symphonies, and Prague Philharmonia under conductors including Gianandrea Noseda, Trevor Pinnock, David Robertson, and John Storgårds. A winner of Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Career Grant, Hochman performs at venues and festivals across the globe, including the Philharmonie in Berlin, Vienna Konzerthaus, the Kennedy Center in Washington, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Germany’s Klavierfestival Ruhr and Lucerne and Verbier festivals in Switzerland. In 2015, Hochman develops an auto-immune condition affecting his left hand. He decides to pursue his longstanding interest in conducting, studying with Gilbert at Juilliard where he is granted the Bruno Walter Scholarship and the Charles Schiff Award. He assists Louis Langrée, Paavo Järvi, and Edo De Waart and creates the Roosevelt Island Orchestra, consisting of some of New York’s finest orchestral and chamber musicians alongside promising young talent from top conservatories. Invitations to conduct the orchestras of Santa Fe Pro Musica, Orlando, and The Orchestra Now at Bard New York follow. Fully recovered, Hochman re-emerges as a pianist in 2018. He records Mozart Piano Concertos Nos. 17 and 24, playing and directing the English Chamber Orchestra (Avie Records). He presents the complete Mozart Piano Sonatas at the Israel Conservatory in Tel Aviv, performs Beethoven sonatas for Daniel Barenboim as part of a filmed workshop at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin, and plays both Beethoven and Kurtág for Kurtág himself at the Budapest Music Centre. Highlights of 2022-2023 include Beethoven’s last three Piano Sonatas at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Schubert’s Trout Quintet at the Schubertiade Festival in Austria with the Emerson String Quartet and Dominik Wagner, and performances with cellist Zlatomir Fung at Wigmore Hall, London and across North America. He will conduct Beethoven and Schumann with the Greater Bridgeport Symphony in Connecticut and Kurtág at Bard New York. Hochman is a Steinway Artist and a resident of Berlin, where he is a Lecturer at Bard College Berlin.

Zachary DePue has established himself in concert venues around the world delivering virtuosic high-energy performances. He demonstrates command as a leader, soloist, collaborator, and improvisational artist reaching across a diverse landscape of music. His authentic warmth and generosity on stage invite audiences to join him in all his explorations.

DePue became one of the youngest concertmasters in the country when he was appointed to the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO) in 2007. For more than a decade, DePue served the orchestra as a passionate and dedicated leader both in and outside the concert hall. He was named a member of the Stanley K. Lacy Executive Leadership Series, connecting Indianapolis’ emerging leaders to the issues and needs of the community.

DePue rose to international prominence as a founding member of Time for Three, with whom he performed for 15 years. During his tenure with the category-defying trio, he made numerous tours and gave high-profile appearances, including a performance on the 2014 semifinal round of ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. They were the ISO’s first ensemble-in-residence, charged with introducing new audiences to the symphony experience and breathing fresh creative life into the orchestra’s Happy Hour Concert Series. DePue recorded four albums of original music and arrangements with Time For Three. Their 2014 release featured collaborations with ukulele phenom Jake Shimabukuro on “Happy Day,” the uplifting DePue-penned opening cut; saxophonist Branford Marsalis in the rollicky original “Queen of Voodoo;” cellist Alisa Weilerstein in a quartet version of Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise;” and singer/songwriter Joshua Radin in four of his early songs. The trio members were active creative partners in the commissioning of new pieces which were vehicles for collaborations with orchestras and the ensemble. Composers Jennifer Higdon, William Bolcom, and Chris Brubeck each contributed substantial pieces leading the trio to performances with orchestras across the country including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra at their home venue and for their 2013 Carnegie Hall appearance, Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia, Wheeling Symphony, Brevard Festival Orchestra, among many others. The Trio also recorded Higdon’s Concerto 4-3 with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and appears on their 2012 Take Six release.

DePue’s earliest introduction to the stage came through performances with his family. He is the youngest of four brothers—all violinists—who make up The DePue Brothers Band, an eclectic ensemble that blends bluegrass and classical music, with elements of jazz, blues, and rock. DePue graduated in 2002 from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he served as concertmaster of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and studied with renowned violinists Ida Kavafian and Jaime Laredo. He is a former member of the Philadelphia Orchestra where he performed in the first violin section for five years. He performs on violin made by Giuseppe Rocca of Turin, Italy, in 1846.

Noah Geller comes to Seattle from the Kansas City Symphony, where he was Concertmaster since 2012. Prior to this, he held posts in The Philadelphia Orchestra as a first violin section member and later as Acting Assistant Concertmaster. He attended The Juilliard School for both his Bachelor's and Master of Music degrees and has also performed with many chamber and festival organizations around the U.S. including the Marlboro Music Festival, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Center, and here in the Pacific Northwest at the Olympic Music Festival in Port Townsend, Washington.