Fora Baltacıgil

Fora Baltacigil began to play double bass at nine with his father, Yaz Baltacigil at Istanbul State University Conservatory in Turkey. At the age of 14, he started attending several master classes with Gary Karr in Istanbul. In 2006 Baltacigil graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he was a student of Hal Robinson and Edgar Meyer. Baltacigil won the first prize in 2004 Delaware Symphony Concerto Competition. In March 2006 he took the first prize in the Caprio Young Artists Competition of the Riverside Symphonia in New York. Fora Baltacigil joined the Minnesota Orchestra as associate principal bass in September 2006 and was named acting principal bass in July 2007. He previously served as principal bass of the Haddonfield Symphony in New Jersey for one year. Baltacigil was soloist in performances of Harbison’s Bass Concerto in February 2008, in concerts at Orchestra Hall and on the Orchestra’s Minnesota State Tour led by Music Director Osmo Vänskä.

Baltacigil is an active recitalist and has performed in Jerusalem, Wroclaw, Istanbul and Philadelphia. He has performed as soloist with New York’s Jupiter Chamber Orchestra, the Istanbul Symphony Orchestra, the Bursa Symphony Orchestra, the Adana Symphony Orchestra and the Mersin Symphony Orchestra. In summer 2006 he presented a master class at the World Bass Festival in Wroclaw and was featured in Bottesini’s Concerto in B minor with the Wroclaw Philharmonic under the baton of Franco Pettrachi.

In June 2007 he and his brother, Efe Baltacigil, associate principal cello of the Philadelphia Orchestra, gave the opening performance of the Istanbul Classical Music Festival. He performed solo and chamber music works at the Kingston Chamber Music Festival in Rhode Island July 2007.

Reference: minnesotaorchestra.org