Esra Pehlivanli (Ankara/Turkey, 1977) has been awarded several international prizes such as the 5th Krzysztof Penderecki International Contemporary Music Competition (Poland), Torneo Internazionale di Musica (Italy), Jur Naessens Music Award (The Netherlands), first prize at the Premio Valentino Bucchi International Viola Competition (Italy), where she also received the Medaglia del Presidente della Repubblica Italiana and “The Best String Player of the Year” award in Donizetti Classical Music Awards 2013. The content of PEHLIVANLI’s repertory spans from Baroque until the music of present time. Besides performing all the major works of the viola literature, she’s a great devotee of contemporary music and collaborates with composers for the creation and promotion of new viola repertory. Many works have been written for her name. Esra Pehlivanli has given a great variety of concerts in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy, France, Denmark, China, Turkey, Poland, Austria, Slovenia, Venezuela, Ireland  and Luxembourg. She has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Presidential Symphony Orchestra, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Izmir State Symphony Orchestra, and worked with conductors Emil Tabakov, Marek Pijarowski, Raoul Gruneis, Heiko Mathias Förster, Patrick Souillot, Ibrahim Yazici, Pehlivanli has taken part in festivals such as Robeco Zomerconcerten, Grachtenfestival, International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht, Festival Classique Den Haag, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Mommenta Festival, De International Ankara Music Festival, Ljubljana Festival a.o. and radio & TV recordings for RTL Germany, TRT Turkey, Concertzender the Netherlands.