Born in Zagreb in 1939, Milan Turkovic comes from an Austrian-Croatian family and grew up in Vienna, where he studied bassoon and conducting.
He was solo bassoonist with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and subsequently a member of the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center, the Ensemble Wien - Berlin and the Concentus Musicus under Nikolaus Harnoncourt.
Twenty-five years ago, he began to gradually transform his solo activities as a bassoonist, which had made him famous in all the musical centers of the world, into an increasingly intensive international activity as a conductor.
He is married to the former figure skater and television presenter Ingrid Wendl verheiratet.
Since then he has conducted in Vienna, Salzburg, Graz, Rome, Milan, Florence, London, Munich, Berlin, Dresden, New York, Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Brisbane, Zagreb, Krakow, Prague, Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Airies, Lima and Santiago de Chile. Among the orchestras Turkovic has conducted are the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the ORF-RSO Vienna, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg, the Orchestra Sinfonica Verdi di Milano, the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, the Orchetra Sinfonica di Roma, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Prague, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Concert Society, the Krakow Philharmonic, the Austrian-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Vereinigte Bühnen Wien, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and many others. He has been a guest at festivals such as the Haydn Festival in Eisenstadt, the Carinthian Summer, the Salzburg Mozart Week, the Moritzburg Festival and the Kusatsu Festival (Japan).
He received an Echo Klassik award with the German ensemble Selmer Saxharmonic. One of his special projects was the performance “Salieri and Gran Partita” with Karl Markovics, conceived by Turkovic. He also repeated this project with the wind section of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has worked with numerous soloists, including Matthias Bartolomey, Michael Schade, Sara Mingardo, Maria Bill, Mischa Maisky, Vadim Repin, Benjamin Schmid, Jan Vogler, Xavier de Maistre, Sergei Nakariakov, Gabor Boldocki, Gábor Tárkövi, Thomas Indermühle, Wolfgang Schulz, Lise de la Salle, Karl Markovics and Erich Schleyer. In the 2014/15 season, he conducted a production of Weill's “Seven Deadly Sins” at the Vienna Volkstheater with Maria Bill as the protagonist. Participation in the film “Kater” by Händl Klaus (2015/16). Numerous participations as juror and jury chairman at international music competitions, such as ARD Munich or Prague.
His discography currently consists of 9 CDs as a conductor, 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; his third recording was performed on a period instrument, with Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducting. Other releases include the concerti by C.M.v. Weber (with Marriner), the quintet for bassoon and strings “Meeelaan” by Wynton Marsalis and a double CD “Bassoon Extravaganza”. On his most recent CDs he conducted three symphonies by J. Haydn and two CDs with the German Ensemble Selmer Saxharmonic (Echo Klassik award in 2010).
As a soloist Milan Turkovic has performed at numerous musical centers of the world with renowned orchestras (i.e.Vienna Symphony, Stockholm Philharmonic, Bamberg Symphony, The Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, I Solisti Italiani, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Camerata Salzburg, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra (New York), The English Concert, NHK Symphony Orchestra (Tokyo) and the F. Liszt Chamber Orchestra (Budapest). He has worked with such conductors as Eschenbach, Giulini, Harnoncourt, Marriner, Pinnock, Sawallisch, Stein, Vegh among others. Turkovic was a member of Concentus Musicus Wien, of Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and a founding member of Ensemble Wien-Berlin.
Turkovic was a founding member of the Ensemble Wien-Berlin, of which he was a member until 2009. From 1992 to 2012 he was a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, New York. He was a member of the Concentus Musicus Wien until 2012. Numerous composers have written solo works for him, including Ivan Eröd, Wynton Marsalis and Rainer Bischof .
Milan Turkovic has appeared at important festivals all over the world, including Salzburg, Vienna, Lucerne, Lockenhaus, Prades, Prague, New York Santa Fe, Portland, Osaka, Sapporo, Kusatsu. After a tour with trumpeter Wynton Marsalis in 1998. Mr. Marsalis dedicated the quintet “Meeelaan” for bassoon and string quartet to Milan Turkovic, which was subsequently performed by Turkovic all over the world. Turkovic has performed numerous premiere performances, including works by Jean Francaix, Sofia Gubaidulina, Ivan Eröd, Rainer Bischof and Thomas Daniel Schlee.
For two years, he was the presenter of a music quiz on Austrian television. In 2022, his sixth book “Pausentöne” was published by Der Apfel. Before that, he had become known as the author of five other music books:
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