Ilker Arcayürek

Born in Istanbul, Ilker Arcayürek grew up in Vienna. As soloist with the Mozart Boys’ Choir he gained first experiences on international stages touring overseas as well as in joint performances at Vienna’s Staatsoper, Volksoper and Kammeroper. He became a member of the Arnold Schoenberg Choir and studied privately with Sead Buljubasic in Vienna. He participated in master-classes with Sir Thomas Allen, Alfred Brendel, Ileana Cotrubas and Thomas Quasthoff. Ilker Arcayürek is the winner of the 2016 International Art Song Competition of Stuttgart’s Hugo Wolf Academy. He was finalist of the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition 2015 and has been selected a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists until the end of 2017. For BBC Radio 3 he recorded amongst others with Harmut Höll and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. “Der Einsame” marks Ilker Arcayürek’s debut album. He looks forward to touring the program to venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall, Birmingham’s Town Hall, Vilabertran’s Schubertiada and Barcelona’s L’Auditori.

Ilker Arcayürek joined the opera studio at Zürich Opera in 2010 and became a member of the ensemble of the Stadttheater Klagenfurt in the 2013-14 season, where he appeared as Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier, Malcolm in Macbeth, The Prince in The Love for Three Oranges, Alfred in Die Fledermaus and Tamino in Magic Flute. Since the 2015-16 season, Ilker Arcayürek has been a member of the ensemble of the Staatstheater Nürnberg. In Nürnberg his repertoire includes roles such as Rodolfo in La Bohème, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Nadir in Les pêcheurs de Perles and Andres in Wozzeck. Recent guest appearances have included Claudio in Wagner's Das Liebesverbot at Teatro Real in Madrid staged by Kasper Holten under the baton of Ivor Bolton and the Son in Hossam Mahmoud’s Tahrir at the Salzburger Landestheater conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.

With a broad repertoire of oratorio and concert works, Ilker Arcayürek regularly appears on the concert stage. The season 2016-17 marked his debuts at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and in Utrecht as soloist with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Frieder Bernius as well as at the Dresdner Kreuzkirche as Evangelist in St. Matthew’s Passion with the Dresdner Kreuzchor and the Dresdner Philharmonie conducted by Kreuzkantor Roderich Kreile.