DENİZ ŞENSOY

Born in Adana in 2000. She began her studies of violin with Daniya Kainova at
Cukurova University State Conservatory in 2006 and continued with Professor Irine
Iashvili. At the age of 14 she won a full scholarship from the Bilkent University Music and Stage Performances High School and graduated in 2018 as a student of Rasim Bagirov. During the same year she was accepted into Hochschule fur Musik, Theater und Medien , Hannover and continued her undergraduate studies with Prof. Kryzysztof Wegrzyn. As of 2022 she continues her music education with Mark Messenger at the Royal College of Music, London where she was granted  “Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother “ scholarship and also with support from CEV Sanat.

She was awarded the 1st prize at Mimar Sinan 13th Young Musicians Competition and 3rd prize at Gülden Turalı 4th National Violin Competition. She was the first prize winner at international music competitons in Serbia and France in solo and chamber music categories and she won 2nd prize at the 16th Bohdan Warchal ‘Talents for Europe’ Music Competition in Slovakia. Nominated as finalist at Paul Hindemith 4. International Music Competition in Germany and Andrea Postacchini 24th International Violin Competition in Italy. Deniz is one of the ‘Future’s Women Stars’ Scholarship holders of 2019, given by Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts. Having given recital at the Milli Reasürans Concert Hall by İş Bank’s organization, Deniz Şensoy was awarded the Meric Soylu Prize for her performance as the ‘Glowing Star of the Year’ in 2014. In the same year, she received the 3rd prize in the Ohrid Pearls International Music Competition in Macedonia. In 2017, she received ‘Ahmed Adnan Saygun’ scholarship from Bilkent University for her achivements. Deniz performed at solo and chamber orchestra concerts in Croatia and Bosna Herzegovina. She perfomed Polonaise no.1 by Wieniawski at “Meriç Soylu Memorial Concert” at İş Sanat Cultural Center and Schumann Piano Trio no.1 with Jamal Aliyev and Can Çakmur in The International Gümüşlük Music Festival.

As a soloist, she has performed with various orchestras, including Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Bursa Regional State Symphony Orchestra, İzmir State Symphony Orchestra, Samsun State Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Karşıyaka
Municipality Chamber Orchestra, Antalya State Symphony Orchestra, Başkent Chamber Orchestra, Cukurova State Sympony Orchestra and Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality Orchestra.

She participated in the international music festivals in Tatarstan and Argentina, gave solo and chamber music concerts. Deniz was invited to perform at the International Music Festival in Iguazu and represented her country as being the concertmaster of the ‘Iguazu en Concierto’ International Youth Symphony Orchestra, organized by UNESCO in 2014. Under the baton of Rengim Gökmen, she performed at the winter camp concerts of Dogus Children’s Symphony Orchestra as the concertmaster, gave concerts with Türksoy Youth Chamber Orchestra in Kazakhstan, Bosnia and Herzeginova, Serbia and Hungary and performed in ’All Star Symphony Orchestra’ in CRR Concert Hall, directed by Gürer Aykal.

Since 2014, she has given recitals and concerts at the International Bellapais Music Festival of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. At the same music festival in 2016, she performed N.Paganini’s ‘Violin Concerto no.1’ with Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra, directed by İbrahim Yazıcı. Deniz performed at the Closing Concert of the 32nd Morges Music Academy in Switzerland in August, 2017, at the Auditorium of Cagliari Conservatory in Italy in September, 2019 and at Lower Saxony State Museum in Germany in January, 2020. She gave recitals at Mozarthaus Art and Concert House and at Gazi University Concert Hall in 2016, at Erimtan Archeology and Art Museum in 2017 and at the Bilkent Concert Hall in 2018.

Since 2010, Deniz Şensoy had the chance to work with Midori Goto, Kolja Blacher, Itzhak Rashkovsky, Dora Schwarzberg, Igor Ozim, Sergey Kravchenko, David Lukas, Alexander Markov, Mincho Minchev, Andrej Bielow, Alexander Vinnitsky, Lutsia Ibragimova, Igor Tkatchouk, Stephan Milankovich, Ani Schnarch, Cihat Aşkın and Ellen Jewett.

The violin she is currently playing is made by Guadagnini Cremonensis in 1801 granted  to her in 2022 by Florian Leonard Fine Violinswith.