Başak Dilara Lakatos

Born in 1981 in Istanbul-Turkey, she started studying piano at the age of seven at Istanbul State University Conservatory as a pupil of Prof. Sibel Atal Devrim.

In 1999 she was accepted to Ferenc Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest-Hungary where she received her undergraduate/graduate (master’s) degrees in 2004 in Composition with distinction-summa cum laude. In 2005, she was accepted to Conservatoire National Supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris under the guidance of Itamar Golan, for electroacoustic composition studies was selected to IRCAM- Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/ Musique in Paris. She has played concerts throughout Europe, Israel, Canada from an early age and worked with various composers, pianists such as Jonathan Harvey, Brian Ferneyhough, Hugues Dufourt, Hanspeter Kyburz, Zoltán Jeney, Andrea Szigetvári, Roland Batik, Itamar Golan, Vitaly Margulis.

She won numerous grants, prizes such as the Junior Chamber International-Jaycees TOYP National Award for «Outstanding Young Person of the Year 2004», the Koç Private Fund Grant, Eczacıbaşı, Nadia et Lili Boulanger International Centre, Liszt Academy of Music composers’ competition, International Piano Prodigy Competition for Mozart and Haydn interpretations and won the composition competition at the German-Canadian Music Academies’ alliance in collaboration with the Goethe Institute. EME Publish (Editions Musicales Européennes, Paris) have been publishing her works since 2006.

Her ballet repertoire includes complete works of: Don Quijote (M. Messerer), Le Corsaire (A. M. Holmes), Swan Lake (R. van Dantzig- T. van Schayk and P. Bart versions), Giselle (Lavrovsky and P. Bart versions), Nutcracker (W. Eagling, T. Solymosi), Sylvia (L. Seregi), Flames of Paris (M. Messerer), Laurencia (M. Messerer), Onegin (J. Cranko), Snow White and the seven Dwarfs (ifj. Harangozó), Sylvia Pas de Deux (Balanchine), Theme and Variations (Balanchine), Etudes (Landler), Mayerling (K. MacMillan), The Miraculous Mandarin (Bartók), Dance Suite (Bartók), Trois Gnossiennes (Hans van Manen), Sleeping Beauty (M. Haydeée), Messa da Requiem (C. Spuck), Bovary (C. Spuck)

Previously she has worked as a vocal coach, opera repetiteur, ballet pianist at Istanbul State Opera and Ballet, and Csokonai Theater in Hungary until 2014. Following that she worked as the head of pianists’ at Hungarian State Opera and Ballet until 2022 prior to joining the Staatsballett Berlin team. Currently, since the season of 2022-23 she has been working for Staatsballett Berlin.