Zelal Aktaş

Having received first prize in the "Grand Prize Virtuoso" international music competition held in Germany (October 2020), Aktaş was invited to perform at the gala concert held at Beethoven House in Bonn, Germany, in August 2021. In December 2020, she received the first prize in the "Golden Classical Music Awards" competition held in New York, USA, and she was invited to play at Carnegie Hall-Weill Recital Hall in 2022. She attended the piano masterclasses of David Fray and Prof. Adiba Sharipova and the composition masterclass of Klaus Lang. As an active member, she participated in the “Digital Scoring" workshop organized by Prof. Craig Vear.

At the "VI. Bilkent Music Days," which was held between March 2 and March 30, she performed in the concert titled "Young Masters" on March 30, Ludwig van Beethoven’s "Piano Quartet in E flat Major, WoO 36 No.1" as a member of the "Quartet Quattro e Mezzo." She participated in the "New Music by Bilkent Composers" concert held at Bilkent Concert Hall on March 24, 2023, as a member of Bilkent New Music Ensemble, under the baton of Kerem Tunçer.

Aktaş's "Four Miniatures for Solo Flute" was selected to be performed by “Ensemble Handwerk" from Germany at the "2022 lzmir New Music Days" which was held in Izmir on May 25. The premiere of "Four Miniatures for Solo Flute" was performed by Daniel Agi - flutist of "Ensemble Handwerk"- on May 25, 2022. With her "Four Miniatures for Solo Flute," Aktaş won the second prize with the highest score in the "Young Composers” category and among all the other categories at the "Academia Musica" International Composition Competition held in Austria in April.

Zelal Aktaş was born in Ankara, Turkey. She started playing piano at the age of thirteen. She was accepted to Bilkent University's Music High School Division in 2019 and started studying piano with Oliver Jia. She is currently a first-year undergraduate student at the Barenboim- Said Akademie, where she studies piano with Michael Wendeberg.