Efe Baltacigil and Jason Vieaux

Efe Baltacigil, Principal Cello
Seattle Symphony Orchestra

Efe Baltacigil, the Marks Family Foundation Principal Cello of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Turkey’s String Player of the Year, 2013, and awardee of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, is lauded for his risk-taking, passionate performances that immediately capture the heart and imagination.

Recipient of the Peter Jay Sharp Prize, Washington Performing Arts Society Prize, and a first-prize awardee in concerto competitions of Istanbul, New York, and the Pennsylvania Schadt String Competition, Baltacigil experienced early acclaim as winner of the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. He later served as Associate Principal Cello of the Philadelphia Orchestra before joining the Seattle Symphony as Principal Cello.

A highly sought-after and respected chamber musician, Mr. Baltacigil performs for such renowned festivals as Seattle Chamber Music Society, Marlboro, Lincoln Center, Music@Menlo, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, La Jolla, Kingston (Rhode Island), Saratoga, and Taos, and chamber series such as Lyric Chamber Music Society, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Lyon & Healy Hall, and The Seattle Series.

Mr. Baltacigil received his Bachelor’s degree from Mimar Sinan University Conservatory, Istanbul, and an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, where he studied with Peter Wiley and David Soyer and received the Curtis Institute’s Jacqueline DuPré Scholarship.

Efe, his wife, attorney Heather MacClintock, and daughter Ada reside in Seattle’s Magnolia neighborhood.

Mr. Baltacigil’s guest for the evening is world-leading guitarist Jason Vieaux.

Jason Vieaux, guitar
Cleveland Institute of Music

Jason Vieaux is regarded as “among the elite of today’s classical guitarists” (Gramophone) and “perhaps the most precise and soulful classical guitarist of his generation” (NPR). His career and influence are worldwide. In appearances from New York’s Lincoln Center to Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and the Seoul Arts Center, Jason Vieaux has cemented his reputation as an artist of brilliance and uncompromised mastery.

Mr. Vieaux’s extensive discography includes the 2015 Grammy Award-winning album for Best Classical Instrumental Solo, Play; a premiere recording of the Leshnoff Guitar Concerto with the Nashville Symphony (Naxos); Dance with the Escher Quartet (Azica); and “Bach Volume 2: Works for Violin,” released on Azica in 2022 to rave reviews for his “eloquent and vibrant performances” (Gramophone). Additional 2022 releases include “Shining Night,” featuring his duo with acclaimed violinist Anne Akiko Meyers (Avie Records), and Michael Fine’s “Concierto del Luna” with flutist Alexa Still (Sony Classical), both enjoying strong critical acclaim.

Vieaux recorded Pat Metheny’s “Four Paths of Light”, a solo work dedicated to him by Pat, for Metheny’s 2021 album “Road to the Sun”. Other recent recordings include Infusion (Azica) with accordion/bandoneon virtuoso Julien Labro; Ginastera’s Guitar Sonata on Ginastera: One Hundred (Oberlin Music); and Together (Azica) with harpist Yolanda Kondonassis.

Mr. Vieaux has appeared as a soloist with over 100 orchestras, and his passion for new music has fostered premieres from Jeff Beal, Avner Dorman, Vivian Fung, Pierre Jalbert, Jonathan Leshnoff, David Ludwig, Mark Mancina, and Dan Visconti, among many others. He appears regularly with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music@Menlo, and the Strings and Eastern Music festivals.

Mr. Vieaux is head of the guitar program at Cleveland Institute of Music and founder of the guitar program at Curtis Institute of Music. He performs on a 2013 Gernot Wagner guitar.