Fazıl Say

Pianist and composer Fazil Say has been described as one of the greatest artists of the 21st century. Born in Ankara, Say was a child prodigy who excelled at maths and music and began composing at the age of 14. His work, which frequently references traditional Turkish folk music, has drawn comparisons with composers such as Béla Bartók, George Enescu, and György Ligeti all of whom were known to have used similar influences from their own traditional cultures. In 2010 Say premiered his first concerto, a work he composed during his five-year residency at the Theatre Dortmund. The concerto was met with enthusiasm by classical music audiences and Say was subsequently commissioned to write a concerto for clarinet for the acclaimed German clarinettist Sabine Meyer. Although held in high regard around the globe and in particular Germany, Say has courted controversy in his native Turkey due to his publicly stated atheism. In 2013 he made a series of postings on social media which were seen as disrespectful to Islam and was sentenced to ten months in jail, suspended for five years. In 2015 Turkey's appeal court rescinded the sentence and acquitted the composer.