Efe Baltacigil is associate principal cellist of The Philadelphia Orchestra and winner of the 2005 Young Concert Artists (YCA) International Auditions and an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2006. Baltacigil made his New York debut at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and his Washington, D.C. debut at the Kennedy Center after winning the YCA prize.  As a member of the Rising Stars program of the European Concert Hall Organization (ECHO) he toured Europe in the 2007–08 season. Baltacigil also performs regularly as a member of Lincoln Center's Chamber Music Society Two. Baltacigil performed with Pinchas Zukerman and Yo-Yo Ma at Carnegie Hall, and has participated in Ma’s Silk Road Project. He has toured with Musicians from Marlboro and appeared in Richard Goode's Perspectives Series at Carnegie Hall. Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Baltacigil began studying the violin at the age of five, and switched to cello at seven. He was awarded a Jacqueline Du Pre Scholarship from The Curtis Institute of Music, where he studied with Peter Wiley and David Soyer, receiving an Artist Diploma in 2002.