Benyamin Sönmez

He played an 18th-century Matteo Goffriller cello from Venice, Italy.

Sönmez died on December 1, 2011, at the age of 28, after a heart attack in Ankara. Following a funeral ceremony at the Hacettepe University Conservatory, his body was transferred to Fethiye, Muğla Province, where he was laid to rest.

His last invitation was to the 80th birthday of M. Rostropovich in 2007. Sonmez, who has performed duo concerts with Oxana Yablonskaya, played his art at important musical centers such as Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, Moscow, New York City, Washington D.C. and Istanbul. He was living in istanbul, Turkey.

Benyamin Sonmez earned a special prize in the 2006 Adam International Cello Festival and Competition in New Zealand.

For further studies, Benyamin was recommended to Natalia Gutman by Yuri Bashmet via pianist Gulmira Tokombaeva, a teacher from Kyrgyzstan at the Ankara conservatory. Between 2003 and 2007, he studied under Natalia Gutman, first at Stuttgart Hochschule für Musik in Germany and later at Moscow Conservatory in Russia. In Moscow, he was frequently invited to her home, where he had the opportunity to meet notable writers, artists and musicians including Yuri Bashmet, Viktor Tretiakov, Vasily Lobanov, Eliso Virsaladze, Mischa Maisky, Kurt Masur.

By the time, he was 17, having proved his superior musical skills, he came first in the national cello contest. He was given a place within BBC soloists in 2000. He won a special award at the International Young Concert Artists Contest organized in Leipzig, Germany in 2001.

Benyamin Sönmez (January 16, 1983 – November 30, 2011) was a Turkish classical cellist.

Benyamin was born to Turkish parents in Bremen, Germany. His father went in the 1970s to Germany as a tourist taking his musical instrument saz with him. He stayed there, formed a musical group and earned his life playing music at weddings. Later, his mother followed his father in Germany. As Benyamin was three years old, the family with two boys returned home.