Bowers Program Artist
Evren Ozel
Piano
American pianist Evren Ozel has established himself as a musician of “refined restraint” (Third Coast Review), combining fluent virtuosity with probing, thoughtful interpretations. Having performed extensively in the United States and abroad, Ozel is the recipient of a 2023 Avery Fisher Career Grant, 2022 Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant, and is currently represented by Concert Artists Guild as an Ambassador Prize Winner of their 2021 Victor Elmaleh Competition.
Since his debut with the Minnesota Orchestra at age 11, Ozel has been a featured soloist with the Cleveland Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, and The Orchestra Now at Bard College, with conductors Jahja Ling, Ruth Reinhardt, Courtney Lewis, and Leon Botstein. In March of 2025, his first album of Mozart Concertos with the ORF Radio Symphony of Vienna and conductor Howard Griffiths will be released on Alpha Classics.
Ozel’s 2024–25 season highlights include solo recitals for La Jolla Music Society, Capital Region Classical, and Cal Performances. Previously, he has performed recitals for Harvard Musical Association, Schubert Club, Chopin Society of Minnesota, and The Gilmore. Carrying a vast and varied recital repertoire, his 2023–24 season included a program ranging from Bach and Rameau to Ligeti, as well as a program of Beethoven’s last three Piano Sonatas. As a laureate of the 2024 Cleveland International Piano Competition, Ozel will appear in recitals internationally in the coming years at Salle Cortot in Paris, Brandenburgische Sommerkonzerte in Germany, and Vilnius Piano Festival in Lithuania.
An esteemed chamber musician, Ozel performs alongside artists like David Finckel and Wu Han, Stella Chen, Zlatomir Fung, Paul Huang, and Peter Wiley. He spent four summers at the Marlboro Festival, and is currently a 2024–27 Bowers Program Artist for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. His 2024–25 season includes a tour with Musicians from Marlboro, as well as CMS concerts at Alice Tully Hall.
Ozel resides in Boston, where he is currently part of New England Conservatory’s prestigious and highly-exclusive Institute for Concert Artists, under the tutelage of Wha Kyung Byun. Other important mentors include Jonathan Biss, Imogen Cooper, Richard Goode, Sir András Schiff, and Mitsuko Uchida.
