Born in Akşehir, Turkey, he studied at Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul with Prof. Guzin Gurel. After his graduation, he studied at the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. He had the chance to study with Katia Ricciarelli in Italy and also with celebrated opera artists such as Renata Scotto, Montserrat Caballe, Tom Krause, Renato Bruson, Sir Thomas Allen, Bonaldo Giaotti.
He made his professional operistic debut at the Teatro alla Scala in 2002 as Don Alfonso in Lucrezia Borgia. In 2004 He made his Metropolitan Opera debut when he sang Leporello and He returned to the Metropolitan Opera in 2009 as Ferrando in Il Trovatore. Mr. Bilgili is still the only Turkish artist in history to perform a major role in Metropolitan Opera in New York City.
Winner of prizes as: First Prize in the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition 2002 in Vienna, the International Alfredo Kraus Competition 2002 in Las Palmas, the Neue Stimmen International Opera Competition in 2001, the Mario Lanza Opera Competition, and the J. Parkinson Italian Opera Competition. He was also a winner of the Loren Zachary Opera Competition, the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation International Voice Competition, and was First Place winner in both the Giargiari Bel Canto Voice Competition and 1998 Siemens Opera Competition in Turkey. In 2003, Mr. Bilgili became Turkey’s first ever representative at the BBC Cardi Singer of the World competition.
Burak Bilgili has performed with distinguished musicians such as Zubin Mehta, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Andrew Davis and he has played in the most celebrated concert venues, festivals and opera houses. Beyond acting on stage he also performed with orchestras such as The American Symphony Orchestra, Auckland Symphony, National Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, Turkish Presidential Symphony Orchestra, Borusan Philharmonic and many more.