Introduction

A versatile musician, equally in demand as a soloist, chamber music partner and orchestral musician, violist Ezgi Pikayzen regularly appears in such prestigious venues as Carnegie Hall, Vienna Musikverein, David Geffen Hall, National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Liszt Hall in Budapest, Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, Newman Center in Denver, Presidential Hall in Ankara, BBC Proms. 

In 2025-26 alone, Ezgi appeared at the Berlin Philharmonic, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Athens Megaron and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Salzburg Festival as a regular member of Utopia
Orchestra. For fall 2026, she will go on tour with Utopia to Lotte Concert Hall in Seoul, Taiwan National Hall in Taipei, as well as Tonhalle in Zurich, Salle Pleyel in Paris and more. As a soloist, Ezgi has appeared with the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México, Baskent Chamber Orchestra, Concerto Barocco Chamber Orchestra, Lomza Philharmonic Orchestra, Bellas Artes
Chamber Orchestra and many others, across China, Italy, United Arab Emirates, Poland, Switzerland, Germany, Romania, Spain, Mexico and Israel. 

After beginning her studies in her native city of Izmir, Turkey, Mrs. Pikayzen became a student of the two most celebrated Turkish violists, Prof. Cetin Aydar and Rusen Gunes, the long-time viola Principal of the London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Philharmonic. Mrs. Pikayzen was invited to lead the viola sections of such orchestras as the Presidential Symphony of Turkey, Borusan Philharmonic Orchestra, Tekfen Philharmonic Orchestras, Baskent Chamber Orchestra, New Manhattan Sinfonietta, and Capital Symphony. 

She regularly performs with the Colorado Symphony, Opera Colorado and Colorado Ballet and has worked with such conductors as Peter Oundjian, Jaime Martin, Gürer Aykal, Teodor Currentzis, Fazil Say, and Andrew Litton. Ezgi appears as chamber musician and pedagogue at the most prestigious festivals across Europe, Asia, North & South America, including Schleswig-Holstein Festival in Germany, Soloist Academy, Rencontres Musicales de Chaon and Festival BAM in France, Orvieto Musica in Italy and a slew of others.
 

A dedicated pedagogue, Mrs. Pikayzen was on the chamber music faculty at the Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver, as well as the coordinator of strings for the Lamont Summer Academy, in addition to running her own private studio and teaching and performing in numerous clinics as part of community outreach in the greater Denver area. In 2026, she
joined the Academy at the Cleveland Institute of Music as an instructor of viola.