Recordings

Cagdas Soylar, born in Izmir, Turkey, completed her bachelor’s degree in piano performance at the H.U Ankara State Conservatory where she studied the piano for 10 years. After completing her degree, she worked as an accompanist at the same conservatory and taught piano at the universities and many private institutions for several years. In 2009, she travelled to the United States and started her graduate studies in piano performance at the Pittsburg State University with an honor scholarship. She completed her studies with the “Outstanding Student Award”.

Soylar is a receipent of numerous awards in the U.S., including 2nd place in the KMTA State Artist Piano Competition and “Excellence in Professional Service” by the Pittsburg State University Department. She was also selected as a soloist by the State Symphony Orchestra and granted membership of one the most prominent American national music honor societies established at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois based on her high academic and musical standards. Since then, she has performed as a solo pianist and collaborative pianist in many countries in Europe, Canada, and China including China’s National Center for the Performing Arts Hall in Beijing, one of the most prestigious concert halls in Asia.

Soylar served as a piano accompanist both at Pennsylvania State University in PA and at Azusa Pacific University in Southern California and taught piano at many private intuitions for many years. She completed her second master’s degree in Keyboard Collaborative Arts at Azusa Pacific University and then her doctoral studies in piano performance at Yasar University in Turkey. She is currently living in Atlanta, GA.

In October 2018, Soylar’s first book on Olivier Messiaen, a prominent twentieth-century French composer, was published by Wipf and Stock Publishers in the U.S. and has become available in many countries in Europe as well as Japan, Taiwan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil under the title of “Messiaen’s Musial Language on the Holy Child”. New York Public Library and The Royal Library of the Netherlands added her book to their Performing Arts Research Collection. It has also become available in the Hong Kong Academic Library Link, a union catalogue allowing the students and staff of the eight partner institutions to search a mega collection held in the eight participant libraries in Hong Kong.