VERA DERICI
Vera Derici, born in Istanbul in 2004, began her professional
music career at the age of seven when she was awarded a “Gifted Scholarship” to study piano at Bilkent University in Ankara. At nine, she participated in her first competition in Italy,
winning the “Absolute First Prize,” which marked the beginning of her success in international competitions. During her studies at Bilkent, she performed a series of concerts featuring works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, commissioned by the Russian Embassy. She has won numerous international competitions in Germany, Hungary, Poland, Malta, and Austria.
In 2015, she passed the Istanbul University entrance exam for
piano with "outstanding performance." While at Istanbul University, she developed a keen interest in composition. In 2018, she performed chamber music by Debussy and solo piano works by Chopin as part of the "Encore Music Projects" in England, at the Wells Cathedral Hall. During this period, she also published two books of aphorisms and short stories.
Vera has participated in masterclasses with renowned pedagogues, including Uta Weyand, Noriko Ogawa, Vadim Gladkov, Oleg Marshev, William Fong, and Zuzana Niederdorfer.
She collaborated with jury members of the Chopin Competition, Ewa PobÅ‚ocka and John Rink, performing Chopin’s works across various cities. In Vienna, she continued her solo and chamber music performances in prestigious venues such as the Bösendorfer Hall, Ehrbar Hall, the Wiener Musikverein.
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Since 2020, Vera Derici has been living in Vienna and, since 2023, studying piano with Tamara Atschba at the Franz Schubert Conservatory. She was honored with the “Young Artist Award 2022”. In 2023 and 2024, her growing interest in composition and chamber music led to numerous performances featuring flute, viola, and violin, including several of her own compositions. She is also passionate about interdisciplinary concert formats and
electroacoustic music, incorporating unconventional materials into her works.
Sponsored by Turkish organizations, she has presented her compositions in a series of Turkey-themed concerts. She was entrusted with composing an orchestral work inspired by The Black Book by Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk. Since 2024, she has been studying composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
