Mertol Demirelli, (born June 6, 1996 in Ankara) is a Turkish child prodigy pianist.
Demirelli began his music studies when he was four years old, and private piano lessons followed when he was five. Displaying noticeable talent at the special admittance examinations, Demirelli was accepted to the Bilkent University, Faculty of Music and Performing Arts, Music Preparatory Primary School with full scholarship. He studied piano with Oya Ünler for four years and with Ersin Onay for a year. Demirelli also continued his high school education and followed a special program for talented children at this school by taking courses on music theory, ear training, composition, and violin. He was accepted to the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel (Belgium) in October 2010 with full scholarship. Since then he has studied piano under the direction of Abdel Rahman El Bacha.
In 2003, at the age of seven, he won the IBLA Grand Prize, a Sicilian music competition. The price included the organization of concerts worldwide. In early 2004 Demirelli gave concerts at Newcastle (England), New York including Carnegie Hall, and Little Rock, Arkansas (USA).
Since 2003, he has given concerts at many universities including, Anadolu, Bilkent, Boğaziçi, Hacettepe, Istanbul, Izzet Baysal and Yıldız. Demirelli performed at the Akbank Piano Days, The Mersin International Music Festival, Antalya International Piano Festival as well as special concerts at Turkish National Grand Assembly, Turkish Pediatric Foundation and Vehbi Koç Foundation. He also performed with The Spivakov Genius Children from Russia at Boğaziçi University in 2007.
He performed Mozart's Concerto for Piano No. 11 when he was eight. At nine, the Piano Concerto No. 12, at eleven, the Piano Concerto No. 23. When he was ten, at the opening of 35th Istanbul International Music Festival, he played the J.S. Bach Concerto for Two Pianos with pianist İdil Biret at Hagia Eirene Museum.
In 2004, he played at the special vocations which İhsan Doğramaci gave to President of Azerbaijan; Ilham Aliyev, in 2005 the IMF Vice President; Anne Krueger and in 2007 President of Israel; Shimon Peres. In 2005 with the invitation of The Turkish Foreign Ministry he gave concerts in Jordan, in 2008 Lithuania and Switzerland in Geneva at Palais des Nations of UN. He played at the Spivakov Music Festival at Moscow in 2008 and at the Summer of Culture Festival at Bratislava in 2009.
Mertol Demirelli has given concerts with orchestras including the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Antalya, Bursa, Çukurova, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestras, The Borusan İstanbul Philharmonic and the Eskişehir Municipality, Doğuş Children’s, Kaunas Symphony Orchestras and Presidential Symphony Orchestra. The conductors he collaborated with are Burak Tüzün, Ender Sakpınar, Gürer Aykal, Işın Metin, İbrahim Yazıcı, Kevin Griffiths, Modestas Pitrenas, Oğuzhan Kavruk and Rengim Gökmen.
Demirelli performed at the Antalya International Piano Festival, he played Mozart Concerto For Two Pianos with Hüseyin Sermet at Istanbul and Beethoven Triple Concerto at Munich in November 2008.