Deniz Sensoy - Violin
Deniz Sensoy Masterclass with Maxim Vengerov at Royal College of Music conducted by Toby Purser - Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op.64
“Deniz has a very bright musical personality, passion for music and great determination. These attributes make her special and distinct from other artists. Her flexibility and quest for learning is quite magnificent. She has a bright future.”
Deniz Sensoy, born in Turkey in 2000, began her studies of violin with Dania Kainova at the age of 5. She received a full scholarship from Bilkent University Music and Performing Arts High School and graduated as a student of Rasim Bagirov in 2018. In the same year, she was accepted to Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover to pursue further studies with Professor Krzysztof Wegrzyn in Germany. After studying with Mark Messenger, she is now continuing her studies with Alexander Gilman at the Royal College of Music in London, where she received the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Scholarship. She has successfully been accepted to the same institution, supported by a full scholarship, to start her master’s degree studies in September 2024.
Deniz has achieved notable recognition for her talent, being selected as one of Classic FM's Rising Stars for 2024 and receiving the 'Future's Women Stars' Prize from the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts in 2019. She has also collaborated on a video recording with Classic FM for the International Women's Day at the Southbank Centre in London. Having given a recital at the Milli Reasürans Concert Hall by İş Bank's organisation, Deniz was awarded the first-ever Meric Soylu Prize for her outstanding performance, earning her the title of ‘Glowing Star of the Year’ in 2014.
Throughout her career, Deniz's performances have taken her to prestigious venues worldwide. She made her debut at the Wigmore Hall in 2023, where she performed Turkish pianist/composer Fazil Say’s piece ‘Cleopatra’ for solo violin. She will be coming back to perform another concert in April 2024. She has performed alongside the world famous violinist Maxim Vengerov at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra for the celebration of Vengerov’s 40-year stage career and also at the Zorlu PSM in Istanbul for the celebrations of the 100th year of the Turkish Republic. She has recently performed at the renowned Elbphilharmonie Hamburg with the LGT Young Soloists, showcasing their virtuosic repertoire to a captivated audience.
Deniz gave her first orchestral concert as a soloist with the Cukurova State Symphony Orchestra at the age of 8 and continues performing with various orchestras including Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, İzmir State Symphony Orchestra, Olten Philharmonic Orchestra and many others. She has performed Mendelssohn’s Violin concerto with the RCM Symphony Orchestra in a masterclass with Vengerov. At this special event she played a violin made by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù (Cremona 1732), generously loaned by a private foundation and the RCM. Her most recent orchestral concert was with the YMSO at the Cadogan Hall in London with Bruch’s Violin Concerto No.1 in February 2024.
For the past decade, Deniz has been a regular performer at the International Bellapais Music Festival of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and her most recent performance was with the TRNC Presidential Symphony Orchestra in 2023. Deniz received a prestigious invitation to perform at the International Music Festival in Iguazu where she played to an audience of over five thousand people and represented her country as the concertmaster of the ‘Iguazu en Concierto’ International Youth Symphony Orchestra, an event organised by UNESCO in 2014. Some of her notable performances include Morges Music Academy in Switzerland, Cagliari International Music Festival in Italy, Richard Jakoby Concert Hall in Germany, Lerici Music Festival in Italy and Istanbul Ataturk Cultural Center in Turkey.
Deniz has had the privilege of working with renowned violinists such as Midori Goto, Dora Schwarzberg, Alina Ibragimova, Kolja Blacher, Alexander Markov, Mincho Minchev, Igor Ozim, Andrej Bielow and Esther Yoo, as well as esteemed quartets like the Sacconi Quartet, Quartetto di Cremona, Brodsky Quartet and Marmen Quartet with her Fiora Quartet where she plays the first violin.
Deniz has recently signed with Hennessey Brown Music, marking an exciting new chapter in her musical career. The violin she is currently playing with, made by Thomas Perry in 1822, was kindly loaned to her by Florian Leonhard Fine Violins. Her studies are also supported by the Contemporary Educational Foundation of Turkey (CEV) and MESA Holding.