Pannon Philharmonic

Milan Turkovic originates from an Austro-Croatian family. He grew up in Vienna, Austria and today is one of the few internationally known bassoon soloists.
It is within the last 15 years that Turkovic has been increasingly active internationally as a conductor. He is a member of the Ensemble Wien-Berlin (a woodwind quintet he formed together with principal players of the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic), the Concentus Musicus of Vienna, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York.

From 1984 until 1992, he was professor of bassoon at the Universitaet Mozarteum in Salzburg. Then, in 1992, he moved to the Hochschule in Vienna where he resided until 2003. Mr. Turkovic left the university in order to concentrate more on his conducting endeavors.

Turkovic has performed as a soloist in most of the musical centers of the world with numerous renowned orchestras (e.g. Vienna Symphony, Stockholm Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, English Concert, I Solisti Italiani, Camerata Academica, Salzburg, NHK Symphony, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra) as well as with conductors such as Eschenbach, Giulini, Harnoncourt, Loughran, Marriner, Hogwood, Pinnock, Sawallisch, Stein, Vegh, Zinman, among others.

In 1998 he toured the U.S. with Wynton Marsalis premiering "The Fiddler's Tale". The summer of 2000 brought forth the premiere of Mr. Marsalis' quintet for bassoon and string quartet, entitled "Meeelaan!". Dedicated to him for his 60th birthday, Turkovic holds exclusive performance rights for the piece.

Turkovic appears regularly at important festivals all over the world such as Salzburg, Vienna, Lucerne, Lockenhaus, Naantali, Prades, New York, Osaka, Kusatsu (Japan), and others.

His discography currently consists of 15 CDs with solo repertoire, 26 CDs with chamber music, and over 200 CDs with Concentus Musicus. He has recorded the Mozart Bassoon Concerto four times, of which the third was played on a period instrument with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting. His most recent releases include the concerti of C.M.v.Weber with Marriner, five bassoon concerti by Vivaldi (I Solisti Italiani) and concerti by Joh. Chr. Bach and Kozeluh.

As a conductor, Milan Turkovic appears regularly with chamber orchestras and large wind ensembles. He has conducted in Vienna, Salzburg, Venice, Milano, Rome, Florence, New York, Osaka, and many other places. He also hosted his own music show on Austrian television for two years. In the fall of 1998 Turkovic's book, "Was Musiker Tagsueber tun: senza sordino", was published by Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna (in German).

In March of 2003 Turkovic, along with co-author Monika Mertl presented his new book in Vienna. "Die seltsamsten Wiener der Welt - Nikolaus Harnoncourt und sein Concentus Musicus" was written for the 50th anniversary of the famous Concentus Musicus and is published by Residenz Verlag. In spring of 2005 Residenz Verlag published another of Turkovic's books dealing with the international music life, this time entitled “Hast du Töne! Ein musikalisches Tagebuch” (also in German).

Turkovic has a son from his first marriage who currently resides in Austin Texas. Since 1993 he has been married to Ingrid Wendl, a former Olympic figure skating star, Austrian TV host, and recent member of Austrian Parliament.