Elif Şahin began to play piano at the age of thirteen only, nevertheless she succeeded in establishing herself as a professional pianist in the international musical life. In the course of her busy concert activities as a solo pianist and a collaborative pianist for song and chamber music documented in radio broadcasts e.g. for the South German Radio (SWR) and Deutschlandradio she received invitations to the music festivals in Ludwigsburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein and to the Stuttgart Liederhalle among others and guested for instance in the Netherlands and Japan, at the International Piano Festival Antalya, in Ankara and Istanbul. Furthermore she is a sought-after piano teacher giving master classes regularly in Japan, Germany and Turkey and holds a post as a lecturer at the Stuttgart Music Academy.
“Elif Şahin disposes of a repertoire of wide stylistic scope from the Baroque to contemporary music with the main focus on the Classical and Romantic era.”
After only three years of piano lessons Elif Şahin was admitted to the class for highly skilled pianists at the State Conservatory of the University Hacettepe in her hometown Ankara led by the renowned pedagogue Prof. Kamuran Gündemir, a student of the legendary French pianist Lazare Lévy who communicated to her along with the technical fundaments also the European piano tradition. Temporarily sponsored by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) she pursued her studies in Germany at the Music Academies in Mannheim and Trossingen as well as at the Stuttgart Music Academy with Prof. Cornelis Witthoefft.
Born into a family of musicians partly with Christian-Jewish background Elif Şahin disposes of a repertoire of wide stylistic scope from the Baroque to contemporary music with the main focus on the Classical and Romantic era. She was awarded the First Prize at the International Song Competition of the Hugo Wolf Academy Stuttgart and the “Thomas Wiese Prize” and was a laureate at the Vocallis Festival in the Netherlands.
