Muhiddin Dürrüoglu

Pianist and composer Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu entered the Conservatoire supérieur d’Ankara at the age of eleven, benefiting from a special program reserved for gifted children. One year later, he began performing regularly in concert. In 1987, at the age of eighteen, he obtained his bachelor’s degree and moved to Belgium to complete his training at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles with Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden for piano and Jacqueline Fontyn for composition. Two years later, he was admitted to the prestigious Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth, from which he graduated in 1992 with a Virtuosity Diploma with highest distinction. He was a finalist at the European Piano Competition in 1991 and the winner of the Nany Philippart Competition in 1992, and also received the Fondation de la Vocation award. Always eager to perfect his skills, he enrolled the following year at the Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington, USA, where he pursued a doctorate in piano. It was in 1993 that Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu began to gain recognition as a composer: his six Preludes for piano earned him the Prix Arthur De Greef from the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, des Lettres et des Sciences de Belgique, and Contact for flute and piano won the Musical Creation Award from the Académie de Lutèce in Paris. In 1996, he received the Sabam Prize for Contact 2 at the Muizelhuiskoncerten competition, and in 2000 he was awarded the Prix André Chevillion, Yvonne Bonnaud from the Fondation de France for Le Tourneur. Two of his works were later recognized in international composition competitions: Nebula, which received the Prix Irène Fuérison, and Varioactivité, which won second prize at the Hulste competition. While his music sometimes references the Orient (Le Tourneur evokes the whirling dervishes), it also invites listeners on much more distant journeys, notably in … des pas sur la lune…, a homage to Debussy, and in Nebula, an imaginary voyage through a nebula.

As a soloist and chamber musician, his concerts have taken him to many countries including Turkey, Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Romania, Italy, Israel, Argentina, Portugal, Denmark, Luxembourg, Cyprus, South Korea, Hungary, China, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where he presents a wide repertoire ranging from the great classics to contemporary composers. Muhiddin Dürrüoğlu is very active in the Belgian musical scene, his adopted country, and teaches as a professor at the Conservatoire Royal de Musique de Bruxelles. His recordings have been released by the labels Fuga Libera, Pavane, Cyprès, Kalidisc, Talent, Megadisc, and René Gailly. Among his numerous chamber music partners, particular mention goes to clarinetist Ronald Van Spaendonck and cellist Marie Hallynck, with whom he founded the Ensemble Kheops, as well as Graf Mourja, Hervé Joulain, and Lise Berthaud.