Efe Baltacıgil, cello

Principal Cello of the Seattle Symphony since fall 2011, Efe Baltacıgil was previously Associate Principal Cello of The Philadelphia Orchestra since 2003.

Baltacıgil has participated in Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project and performed a Brahms Sextet with Itzhak Perlman, Midori, Yo-Yo Ma, Pinchas Zukerman, and Jessica Thompson at Carnegie Hall. He has also performed the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Curtis Chamber Orchestra, has toured with Musicians from Marlboro, and been a member of Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society II.

Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Baltacıgil started studying the violin at age 5 and changed to the cello at age 7. He received his bachelor’s degree from Mimar Sinan University Conservatory in Istanbul in 1998 and an artist diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 2002, where he studied with Peter Wiley and David Soyer. He was a recipient of the Curtis Institute’s Jacqueline du Pré Scholarship. Named String Player of the Year in Turkey in 2013, Baltacıgil has also received the Peter Jay Sharp Prize, the Washington Performing Arts Society Prize, and first prizes in concerto competitions in Istanbul and New York, as well as in the Allentown (Pennsylvania) Schadt String Competition. He was the winner of the 2005 Young Concert Artists International Auditions and received an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2006.