Born in Brighton, UK, German-Turkish violinist Ayla Şahin is active as a soloist, chamber musician, and artistic director across Europe and beyond.

She is a prizewinner of numerous national and international competitions, most recently receiving 1st Prize and the Beethoven Prize at the 2025 Schoenfeld International String Competition, and 1st Prize at the 72nd Royal Overseas League Competition (2024) with Trio Archai. In 2024, after graduating with the highest possible marks, she was awarded the Brambilla Prize for the most outstanding Master’s violin recital at the Musik-Akademie Basel. Additional distinctions include the Vontobel Bank Stiftung LYRA Award (2023, 2024), the Countess of Munster Musical Trust Award (2022), and selection for the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme (2025/26).

A sought-after performer, Ayla has appeared at major international venues and festivals including Wigmore Hall, Heidelberger Frühling, Tivoli Vredenburg, Kings Place, Stadtcasino Basel, St George’s Bristol, Yellow Barn, O/Modernt Winter Festival, Swiss Chamber Music, Schaffhausen Klassik, Schiermonnikoog, NUME, and the Dresdner Musikfestspiele. She has collaborated with artists such as Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Alena Baeva, Timothy Ridout, and Claudio Martinez-Mehner. With the Cassadó Ensemble (Sheku Kanneh-Mason & Friends), she toured extensively throughout the UK and recorded for Decca Classics, including Bloch’s Prelude (2019) and Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals (2021), the latter performed at the BBC Proms 2021 and broadcast on BBC Four and BBC Radio 3.

Driven by a belief that classical music should speak to contemporary audiences, Ayla is the co-founder and artistic director of VOLTA Kammermusikfest, an annual international chamber music festival in Basel. Through imaginative programming and an unconventional performance space, the festival creates intimate encounters between artists and audiences. Her musicianship reflects this same spirit, shaped by curiosity, collaboration, and a commitment to repertoire ranging from Baroque to the present day.

The eldest of three musical sisters, Ayla began studying violin and piano at the age of six, eventually focusing on the violin. She made her concerto debut in 2012 with the Brighton Youth Orchestra and has since performed across Europe, Asia, and North America.

At fourteen, she was admitted as a full-scholarship junior student to the Royal Academy of Music, London, graduating with First-Class Honours in 2021 under Jack Liebeck, where she won the Concerto Competition, performing Barber’s Violin Concerto under the baton of Gergely Madaras. She recently completed her Master’s degree at the Musik-Akademie Basel with Rainer Schmidt and Zoltán Fejérvári, and is currently completing her Chamber Music Master’s at the Musik-Akademie Basel, where Trio Archai is mentored by Claudio Martínez-Mehner, Rainer Schmidt, Anton Kernjak, and Anna Gebert.

Ayla has received further artistic guidance from Leonidas Kavakos, Miriam Fried, Donald Weilerstein, Alina Ibragimova, Ilya Gringolts, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, András Keller, Thomas Adès, and Robert Levin, at institutions including IMS Prussia Cove and the Accademia Chigiana.

She performs on a J.B. Vuillaume violin, generously loaned by Florian Leonhard Fine Violins, and is grateful for the support of the DOMS Stiftung, Stiftung Pirolo, Stiftung Melinda Esterházy de Galantha, and the Musik-Akademie Basel.