Album Notes

WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING:
"A remarkable achievement, with electrifying performances of all three works."
- www.amusicology.com

"This is a thoroughly superb recording, one that I will enjoy having in my library for some time to come."
- Drew Massey, Harvard University

ABOUT SEDA RÖDER:
“Mrs. Röder is a very talented young pianist. In spite of her young age Mrs. Röder has a broad and interesting repertoire. She combines her solid piano technique with musical maturity.”
– Dennis Russell Davies, chief conductor of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Basel Symphony Orchestra

“It is my great pleasure to accompany Seda’s musical studies as her artistic advisor. Her playing shows a nice combination of sensitivity on one side and musical intelligence on the other side. Her interests are reaching far beyond the limits of the piano repertoire.”
– Gerhard Oppitz, legendary pianist and first German to win the Arthur Rubinstein competition in Tel Aviv, Israel.

“In her excellent piano playing she combines awareness for style and form with musical warmth and depth.”
– Rolf Plagge, winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition and Professor of Piano at the Mozarteum Salzburg, Austria

SEDA RÖDER BIOGRAPHY:
Lauded for her “musical intelligence” (Gerhard Oppitz) and “musical maturity“ (Dennis Russell Davies), the Turkish pianist Seda Röder seeks to connect the worlds of musical performance and historical scholarship. A Visiting Fellow at Harvard University, Seda researches Viennese piano music from the contemporaries of Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg. In addition, Seda teaches piano at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and regularly gives recitals and lecture concerts.

Having a wide repertoire of solo and chamber music that ranges from Couperin to Stockhausen and beyond, Seda has performed frequently in Turkey, Austria, Germany, and the USA. On her debut album, which is available as of now, the young pianist brings together music of three centuries by composers who were active in Vienna: Mozart – Brahms – Berg. Her upcoming recording projects will include a CD of modern Turkish music as well as a CD with music by contemporaries of Alban Berg and Arnold Schoenberg.

Born into a family of musicians, Seda began her formal studies in her hometown Istanbul at the age of ten. Three years later she gave her concert debut with the Çukurova State Orchestra with Mozart’s piano concerto K 488. After a two-year stint at the State Conservatory in Adana, she returned to Istanbul, immersing herself in the local music scene until 2001 when she graduated with highest honors from Mimar Sinan University. During that summer Seda received a fellowship from the St. Georg-Kolleg to attend the summer academy at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, where she studied with Jacob Lateiner and Christoph Lieske.

From 2001 on, several scholarships from the Austrian Department of Education as well as the “Alumni Foundation of the Austrian St. Georg-Kolleg, Istanbul,” enabled Seda to attend the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. There – in addition to her piano studies with German pianist Rolf Plagge – she focused on the study of period instruments and performance practice. During her time at the Mozarteum, Seda also studied in master classes under András Schiff and Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. In 2006, Seda graduated from the Mozarteum with distinction in the final performance exams. Her Magister thesis (DMA-equivalent) was entitled “The ‘Janissary Stop.’ Fortepianos of the 19th Century.”

Relocating to Munich in 2006, Seda commenced her post-graduate work at the Munich Musikhochschule, where she worked intensively with the world-renowned Beethoven and Brahms specialist Gerhard Oppitz. While focusing primarily on the piano music of Johannes Brahms during this year, Seda also explored orchestral repertoires as a guest student of Bruno Weil’s conducting class. During the same year she was awarded a prestigious fellowship of the Richard-Wagner-Association Munich, which allowed her to visit the International Wagner Festival at Bayreuth.