Biography
Deniz Şensoy, born in 2000, began her studies of violin with Dania Kainova in Çukurova University State Conservatory in 2006. She received a full scholarship from Bilkent University Music and Performing Arts High School at the age of 14 and graduated as a student of Rasim Bagirov in 2018. In the same year she got accepted to Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover and started her studies with Prof. Krzysztof Wegrzyn in Germany. She is continuing her studies with ‘Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’ full scholarship with Mark Messengerat the Royal College of Music in London.
Deniz Sensoy has been given the ‘Future’s Women Stars’ Prize by Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts in 2019. She was awarded the first prize at Mimar Sinan 13th Young Musicians Music Competition and third prize at Gülden Turalı 4th National Violin Competition. Deniz is a laureate of Paul Hindemith 4. International Music Competition in Germany and Andrea Postacchini 24th International Violin Competition in Italy. She was the first prize winner at international music competitions in Serbia and France in solo and chamber music categories. She won second prize at the 16th Bohdan Warchal ‘Talents for Europe’ Music Competition in Slovakia.
Having given a recital at the Milli Reasürans Concert Hall by İş Bank’s organisation, Deniz Şensoy was awarded the Meric Soylu Prize for her performance as the ‘Glowing Star of the Year’ in 2014. In the same year, she received third prize in the Ohrid Pearls International Music Competition in Macedonia and she received ‘Ahmed Adnan Saygun’ scholarship from Bilkent University for her achievements in 2017. Deniz has participated in the masterclasses and performed at solo and chamber orchestra concerts in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. She performed at ‘Meriç Soylu Memorial Concert’ at İş Sanat Cultural Center in 2015, at the ‘17th International Gümüşlük Music Festival’ in 2020 and at ‘CEV Arts Concert’ at Istanbul’s Atatürk Cultural Center in 2022. She participated in the international music festivals in Tatarstan and Argentina, gave solo and chamber music concerts.
Deniz Şensoy, who gave her first orchestra concert as a soloist with the Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra at the age of 8, has performed with various orchestras including Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Bursa Regional State Symphony Orchestra, İzmir State Symphony Orchestra, Antalya State Symphony Orchestra, Samsun State Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Karşıyaka Municipality Chamber Orchestra, Olten Philharmonic Orchestra, Başkent Chamber Orchestra and Eskişehir Metropolitan Municipality Orchestra.
Deniz Sensoy was invited to perform at the International Music Festival in Iguazu which was attended by more than five thousand people and represented her country as being the concertmaster of the ‘Iguazu en Concierto’ International Youth Symphony Orchestra, organised by UNESCO in 2014. Under the baton of Rengim Gökmen, she performed at the winter camp concerts of Dogus Children’s Symphony Orchestra as the concertmaster, gave concerts with Türksoy Youth Chamber Orchestra in Kazakhstan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Hungary and performed in All Star Symphony Orchestra in CRR Concert Hall, directed by Gürer Aykal.
Since 2014, she has given recitals and concerts at the International Bellapais Music Festival of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. At the same music festival in 2016, she performed N.Paganini’s Violin Concerto no.1 with the Çukurova State Symphony Orchestra, directed by İbrahim Yazıcı. She has been selected as a soloist and performed P.I.Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Bilkent Symphony Orchestra in 2018. She played O.Messiaen’s ‘For The End Of Time’ quartet at the Richard Jakoby Concert Hall in Germany in 2021 and performed at the Istanbul Ataturk Cultural Center with Olten Philharmonic Orchestra in May 2022. Deniz performed at the Closing Concert of the 32nd Morges Music Academy in Switzerland in 2017, at the Closing Concert of Cagliari International Music Festival in Italy in 2019 and at Lower Saxony State Museum in Germany in 2019 and 2020. She gave recitals at Mozarthaus Art and Concert House and at Gazi University Concert Hall in 2016, at Erimtan Archeology and Art Museum in 2017 and at Bilkent Concert Hall in 2018.
Since 2010, Deniz Şensoy had the chance to work with great violinists such as Maxim Vengerov, Midori Goto, Kolja Blacher, Itzhak Rashkovsky, Dora Schwarzberg, Igor Ozim, Sergey Kravchenko, David Lukas, Alexander Markov, Mincho Minchev, Andrej Bielow, Alexander Vinnitsky, Lutsia Ibragimova, Igor Tkatchouk, Stefan Milenkovich, Ani Schnarch, Ellen Jewett, Özcan Ulucan and Cihat Aşkın.
The violin she is currently playing with, Josef Guadagnini Cremonensis made in 1801, loaned to her by Florian Leonhard Fine Violins in 2022. Deniz Sensoy continues her studies with the support of the ‘CEV’ Contemporary Educational Foundation and Talent Unlimited.
