Idil Biret manifested an outstanding gift for music at the age of three and was trained at the Paris Conservatory under the tutelage of Nadia Boulanger. She studied with Alfred Cortot and was a lifelong disciple of Wilhelm Kempff who considered her as her best student. Since the age of sixteen Idil Biret has given concerts throughout the world with major orchestras including the London Symphony, the Philharmonia, BBC Orchestras, Leningrad Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Dresden Staatskapelle, Berlin Radio Symphony, French National Orchestra, Polish Radio Symphony, Orchestre Suisse Romande, Warsaw Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Among the eminent conductors she collaborated with are Pierre Monteux, Joseph Keilberth, Hermann Scherchen, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Alexander Dimitreev, Eric Leinsdorf, Rudolf Kempe, Adrian Boult, Malcolm Sargent,  Charles Mackerras, Moshe Atzmon, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Andrew Davis, Anthony Wit and Aaron Copland. Her first US concert took place on 22 November 1963 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, in the immediate aftermath of  the tragic event of President Kennedy’s death that day.    

Idil Biret has participated in many  festivals including Montreal, Berlin, Paris, Nohant, Duszniki, Athens, Persepolis, Dubrovnik, Montreal, Royan, Montpellier, Weimar and Istanbul. She has played Beethoven Sonatas with Yehudi Menuhin and the Mozart Concerto for two pianos with Wilhelm Kempff. Idil Biret has been member in the juries of many competitions including the Van Cliburn (USA), Queen Elisabeth (Belgium), Montreal (Canada), Busoni (Italy), Liszt (Weimar, Germany, Utrecht, Holland) Messiaen (Paris). She has received the following awards; Lily Boulanger Memorial, Boston; Harriet Cohen – Dinu Lipatti gold medal, London; Adelaide Ristori prize, Italy; Artistic Merit and Order of Merit, Poland; Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite, France; State Artist, Turkey. She is the recipient of honorary doctorates from many universities. 

Idil Biret has played in cycles the complete piano works of Beethoven and Brahms.  In the 1980s she performed in two series of concerts Beethoven’s 32 sonatas and the piano transcription (Liszt) of all the 9 Symphonies, the latter broadcast live by Radio France. In the 1990s she played Beethoven’s five Piano Concertos, the Choral Fantasia and the Triple Concerto in five concerts. In 1997 she played all the solo piano works of Brahms in a series of five recitals in Germany during the composer’s centennial anniversary. 

Idil Biret made more than eighty records for Decca, EMI, Atlantic/Finnadar, Naxos and other companies. These include the world premiere recording of the nine Beethoven Symphonies’ transcriptions by Liszt for EMI (6LP/1986). She also recorded the complete solo piano works and all the concertos of Chopin (15CD/1992), Brahms (12CD/1997), Rachmaninov (10CD/2000) and the three piano sonatas of Pierre Boulez (1995), the Etudes of Ligeti (2003) and the Firebird ballet music’s piano transcription by Stravinsky (2003)  

for Naxos and the Concerto of Massenet and Symphonique Variations and  LesDjinns of Franck for Alpha in France (2006) . Her recording of the complete works of Chopin was awarded a “Grand Prix du Disque Chopin” prize in Poland in 1995. The same year the Boulez sonatas recording won the annual Golden Diapason award and was selected among the best recordings of the year by Le Monde newspaper in France. In 2004 the sale of her CDs worldwide  reached two million copies. Naxos commemorated this event by presenting  Biret  with a platinum disc.  

Idil Biret has  finalized the recording of the complete cycle of Beethoven’s 32 Sonatas which is now distributed worldwide by Naxos on her own label Idil Biret Archive (IBA) together with  all  the Piano Concertos and the Liszt transcription of the Beethoven Symphonies*. In 2006 a book about her life story and musical thoughts has been published by  Buchet/Chastel with the title “Idil Biret, a Turkish Pianist in France” which was then published by Staccato Verlag in Germany and Can Yayinlari in Turkey with the title “A Turkish Pianist on the concert stages of the World”. English translation of the book will also be available in a special edition in July 2009. In 2007 the Polish President decorated Biret with the Distinguished Service  Order - Cavalry Cross  for her contribution to Polish culture through her recordings and performances of Chopin’s music. Biret has now embarked on preparing a new edition of the complete piano scores of Chopin for the American music publishing firm IMC of New York. A documentary film on Idil Biret’s life  is being finalized and will be released by the end of 2009.  

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Wilhelm Kempff (Germany) “My favourite disciple Idil Biret…This genius pianist belongs to the class of elect musicians of our time.”

Igor Kipnis (USA) “The complete Chopin set by Idil Biret can stand among the highest echelons of contemporary Chopin playing.”

Donald Henahan (USA) “Only a brave soul and a confident technician would set out in public to play Liszt’s transcription for piano of Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique, as Idil Biret did.”

Tully Potter (England) “The distinguished pianist Idil Biret shows herself to be one of the finest exponents of Chopin’s Concertos in the world today. I cannot think of any competitor who can offer better performances than these.”

Henry-Louis de la Grange (France) “Idil Biret, this great pianist, who in 1986 victoriously launched an assault on Liszt’s transcription of Beethoven’s nine symphonies, does it again today by playing Chopin in its entirety in a breathtaking interpretation.”