Idil Biret, a piano prodigy, was born in Ankara, Turkey, and at seven was sent to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger. She has received the Lili Boulanger Memorial Award in Boston, the Harriet Cohen / Dinu Lipatti
Gold Medal in London, the Polish Cavalry Cross of the Order of Merit,
the Adelaide Ristori Prize in Italy, the French Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite and the State Artist distinction in Turkey. She has an uncanny ability to play the same musical passage imitating the compositional styles of, say, Beethoven, Mozart, and Debussy. On occasion this highly trained classical pianist plays keyboard in her brother-in-law’s rock and roll band in Istanbul.
