Album DescriptionPianist Zeynep Ucbasaran started her music studies at age four at the Istanbul Conservatory. She has a Concert Artist Diploma from the Liszt Academy of Music , Budapest, where she studied under Prof. Zempleni Kornel, Prof. Katalin Nemes (pupil of Bela Bartok), Balazs Kecskes, and Prof. Istvan Lantos. She also has a Diploma in Aufbaustudium from the Hochschule für Musik , in Freiburg, Germany, and a Master of Music degree in Piano Performance from University of Southern California . Her awards include American Liszt Society Award, Rozsnyai Memorial Award, Ina Broida Award from UCSB, and USC Associates Music Merit Scholarship. She is also a recipient of the MAA 2001 Aspen Summer Music Festival Scholarship, where she was selected to play in the distinguished artist Master Class of Leon Fleisher. She won the Second Prize at the 1996 Los Angeles Liszt Competition and an Honorable Mention in the same competition in 2000. She has given many recitals in Turkey, Hungary,! Germany, Slovenia, and in the United States. At present she is a DMA candidate in Piano Performance at USC , studying with John Perry. Since 1996 she has been living in Santa Barbara, California. In February 2002, she completed recording a collection of virtuoso solo piano works of Franz Liszt in Abravanel Hall, Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.