Fazıl Say is a Turkish composer and pianist born in Ankara, active from the 1980s to the present as one of the leading concert pianists of his generation. Trained in Ankara and later in Düsseldorf and Berlin, he has toured extensively across Europe, Japan, and the Americas while maintaining a base in Istanbul. His compositions merge Western classical forms with Turkish folk elements and instruments such as the ney and darbuka, and his output includes the oratorio Nazım (2001), the prepared-piano work Black Earth (1997), the Istanbul Symphony (2010), and concertos for violin, clarinet, and percussion. He remains active as both performer and composer.

Say is internationally recognized both as a virtuoso interpreter of the standard piano repertoire, particularly Mozart and Beethoven, and as a distinctive compositional voice blending Turkish idioms with contemporary Western classical language. His outspoken advocacy for artistic and political freedom in Turkey, including a widely publicized legal case over social-media remarks that was ultimately overturned on appeal in 2015, has made him a prominent public figure as well as a musician, and his works are performed by major orchestras worldwide.

Sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faz%C4%B1l_Say