Özcan Ulucan

Özcan Ulucan was born in 1973 in the city of Shumen (Bulgaria) to a family of doctors, his mother was a pediatrician, his father was a general surgeon. In 1979 he started his musical education with Zdravka und Vesselin Spirov in the same city. In 1980 he had his first appearance on stage at the concert hall of Shumen Philharmonic Orchestra, in a duo with his pianist sister, Birsen Ulucan. In 1982 he won the second prize at the national music competition "S.Obretenov" (Bulgaria). In 1984 he moved with his family to the city of Varna and continued his music education in the "D. Hristov" Music Gymnasium studying in the class of G. Burova. In 1987 he won the First prize and special prize at the international violin competition "J.Kocian" (Czech Republic).  In the same year, he gave a debut-concert with Shumen Philharmonic Orchestra playing Kabalevski Violin concerto. In 1989 he immigrated with his family to Turkey, because of political reasons. Between 1989 and 1993 he studied at Mimar Sinan University Music Department in the class of Prof. Saim Akcil.
During 1993-95 he got a scholarship of the Turkish Educational Foundation (TEV) and did his postgraduate studies at Guildhall school of Music and Drama-London in the violin class of Prof. Yfrah Neaman. In 1995-98 he continued his masters of Music degree at Hacettepe University Music Department in the class of Prof. Viktor Pikaizen. During 1998-2000 he had his concert diploma study with Prof. Joshua Epstein at the University of Music, Saarbrücken (Germany).
In 2000-2004 he had a soloistic diploma study on violin and viola with Maxim Vengerov at the same academy. He performed in concerts with his pianist sister and duo partner Birsen Ulucan, and also with his younger violinist sister Aysen Ulucan through two-violins and violin-viola-piano concert projects. He also performed concerts with major symphony and chamber orchestras in Turkey.
In 2002-2005 he participated in duo concerts with Maxim Vengerov, together with English Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Borusan Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra London in concert halls and cities such as Royal Albert Hall London, Konzerthaus Berlin, Lütfi Kırdar Istanbul, Tel Aviv, Corsica, Wels Festival, Ludwigsburg Festival, and Amsterdam Concertgebouw. It was a special experience for Ulucan to perform for Edison Awards Concert 2004 together with M.Vengerov under the conducting of Maestro Mstislav Rostropovich. He has given many concerts in Turkey and Europe with Concertos of Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Paganini. Since 2004, Ulucan first taught as an assistant to Maxim Vengerov in the Music Academy Saarbrücken, and after taught private violin and viola classes. Between 2004 and 2006 he joined the Jazz Improvisation sessions as a violinist at the Music Academy Saarbrücken under the coaching of the Jazz pianist Georg Ruby.