Burak Marlali

Since 2017, Burak Marlali has been the principal double bass in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Previously, he was principal double bass of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra from 2007 to 2016, and a member of the Staatskapelle Berlin from 2014 to 2016.

As a guest principal he has performed with renowned orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony, the Rotterdam Filharmonisch Orkest, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Orchestra of Deutsche Oper Berlin, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and has worked with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Pierre Boulez, Riccardo Chailly, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Daniel Harding, Daniele Gatti, Alan Gilbert, Bernard Haitink, Klaus Mäkelä, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Mariss Jansons, Antonio Pappano, Kirill Petrenko, Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christian Thielemann and Franz Welser-Möst. He has also performed with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and has been a member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra.

As a sought-after chamber musician, he appears at international festivals with fellow-musicians such as Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Frans Helmerson, Maximilian Hornung and András Schiff.

Burak Marlali was born in Ankara, where he studied at the state conservatory with Tahir Sümer. He continued his studies at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester with Corin Long and Jiří Hudec, and at the Freiburg University of Music with Božo Paradžik, and was a member of the academy of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra from 2007 to 2009.

He is a prize-winner of numerous competitions, including the Eugene Cruft Double Bass Prize and the Leoš Janáček International Competition in Brno. He has been a teacher at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and a professor at the University of Music Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden. Since 2023 he has been a professor at the University of the Arts in Berlin.