Aydin Önaç

Aydin Önaç was born in Derbyshire in 1951 of a Turkish father and an English mother. He started to play the piano when he was nine and is also rumoured to be a proficient tuba player. In 1971 he entered the Royal College of Music where he studied with Cyril Smith and later with Phyllis Sellick. He became the first winner of the Cyril Smith Prize after a performance of Rachmaninov's Third Piano Concerto. Other awards include the Royal Amateur Orchestral Society Medal, the Croydon Symphony Young Soloist Award, and the first prize for the UK at the Royal Overseas League competition.

Aydin was awarded a scholarship by the Countess of Munster Musical trust and by the Maisie Lewis fund of the Worshipful Company of Musicians. In 1978 he won the £700 award donated by the Harriet Cohen Memorial Music Awards trust for one of Britain's most outstanding young musicians. His "sell-out" debut at the Purcell Room in December 1977 was a dramatic success. He has performed at many of Britain's leading venues including the Queen Elizabeth Hall, Fairfield hall, St. James' Palace and the Royal Albert Hall, and has broadcast on local radio stations and recorded for the BBC.

He has performed concertos with conductors Norman del Mar, Vernon Handley, Arthur Davison, Charles Dutoit, Sir Charles Groves and Raymond Leppard and with orchestras including the London Symphony, the Royal Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, the English Chamber and the Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra. Recently he has performed concertos with Chandos Symphony Orchestra, given recitals as part of the Autumn festival in Malvern and performed at the Countess of Huntingdon Hall in Worcester.

Aydin has written his own Rock Musical Shining Wonder which has received six public performances and several of the songs have been used by BBC Radio and Granada TV. After gaining a first-class honours degree in Maths and pursuing a successful career as a teacher. Aydin Recently moved from Deputy Head at the Chase School, Malvern to become Head Teacher at Fortismere School in London. He combines his musical and teaching careers with active interests in squash, chess, Duke of Edinburgh Award Gold Expeditions and rock climbing, and recently scaled Mount Kilimanjaro. While at The Chase he formed the New Chase Big Band which has been featured at the Upton Jazz festival and at several World Cup Cricket Matches.