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July 2011 Hot News

28 July 2011

Zurich, Switzerland

             The second seasonal Newsletter is here galleried for Clarinetists to know the ongoing progress of this new Organization including upcoming initiatives and their upcoming Competition and Festival in Madrid, Spain in December.  President is VIP Matthias Mueller, a star Clarinetist, composer, and Professor at the Zurich University.  Newsletters are released every quarter and posted on WKA to support the initiative.

18 - 23 July 2011

5th Buffet-Crampon Summer Clarinet Academy with World Class Performing Faculty including Stanley Drucker (New York Philharmonic), John Gunn and Ixi Chen (Cincinnati Symphony), Daniel Gilbert (Cleveland Orchestra and University of Michigan), Andre Moisan (Bass Clarinetist in Symphonique de Montreal), Mitchell Estrin, Francois Kloc, Matt Vance, and Mary Marshall Baxter, Directors,  at University of North Florida

Jacksonville, Florida USA

            The 5th Buffet-Crampon USA Summer Clarinet Academy, with a stellar faculty of World-Class Performers and teachers, engaged with 20 pre-selected by audition students from all over the United States, many studying at the top Universities and Conservatories in this country.  The purpose of this Conference was to give and engage rigorous advanced musical training in the total technical and communicative aspects of Clarinet playing, with private lessons from each of the five artist faculty,  Clarinet technical training in the care and maintenance of the instrument and trouble-shooting to properly keep the instrument in top condition (provided by Artist tech Bruce Markin and Director Francois Kloc).  Every day except Thursday (a day off from the intensive work) had a full calculated schedule including master classes in the afternoon, two faculty concerts, the first evening with Peter Wright, Solo Clarinetist in the Jacksonville Symphony and Clarinet colleagues, with guest Julia Heinen from California, and co-Director of the ClarinetFest 2011, and the Faculty concert with works performed by all five plus a World Premiere written for this Academy by Composer Stella Sung from the University of Central Florida in Orlando.  The last two evenings featured the students performing their prepared works worked on during the week with the faculty.   The results were remarkable given the short and intensive week.  Programs about all events are above in the galleries. 

             The faculty cross-sectioning including Solo Clarinetist Stanley Drucker and Jonathan Gunn, 2nd Clarinetist Ixi Chen and Daniel Gilbert, Bass Clarinet Andre Moisan, and University Professor Dan Gilbert.  Covering all these roles gave the students a perspective on approaches to Orchestral playing, and within all their exposures gave a common conceptual thread that hopefully clarified a common musical and technical theme to take with them.  One could benefit here like nowhere else with the wealth of information to take in.

         During this week there was ample opportunity to try mouthpieces, reeds, ligatures, and have instruments checked to optimize them provided by Bruce Markin the whole time.  David Gould, Michael Skinner from Vandoren, Jessica Watts from BG International (mouthpiece and ligature makers), David McClune (Mouthpiece maker and craftsman) and Buffet offered opportunities to try out their products.

          On Thursday- the day free from the intense, a tour of the Buffet Headquarters was held for students showing the elaborate activity daily in progress there.  This is the North American distribution center where all imported instruments are screened and quality-checked before being released to dealers across the continent.  Thousands of instruments arrive here, and in addition, the staff engages in trips and tours to all the major nationwide conferences loaded with demonstration instruments to display and be auditioned by all who come.  The afternoon had the artist faculty trying instruments for their students and themselves, taking several hours with a multitude of clarinets to examine. 

             On the final evening after the 2nd Student Recital, the faculty and Administrators conferenced to select the recipient of the Stanley Drucker Award, and give out to all the students Certificates of Accomplishment in engaging this Academy.  The winning clarinetist who demonstrated the most improvement and potential was presented with a Drucker selected Buffet R13 with the Clarinet Case signed by the entire faculty.  That was a high honor for the evening for that student.  The recipient of this award went to Patrick Sikes from the University of Florida.  There cannot be enough said about the quality of this program and the Administration that designed and fulfilled this success, especially to Professor Mitchell Estrin of the University of Florida and recently named  as Full Professor, Francois Kloc, Vice President of Buffet USA, Matt Vance,  Woodwind Product Specialist, Mary Marshall Baxter, Artistic Director,  Bruce Markin, Buffet Technician, and the associated supporters Vandoren and David McClune,   

           The next Clarinet Academy is planned for 16 – 21 July 2012 and hopefully notice for students to engage it will take this opportunity acutely seriously.  It is rare to have such a high standard program in place with such a great array of faculty.

 

 

16 - 17 July 2011

World Première: Fazil Say's Clarinet Concerto KHAYYAM at Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival with Soloist Sabine Meyer

Kiel and Lubeck, Germany

Schloss
Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival 2011
Sabine Meyer, clarinet
Bilkent Symphony Orchestra
Conductor Isin Metin
July 17th, 2011   Musik- und Kongresshalle - Lübeck (Germany)
 

 

                A new Clarinet Concerto commissioned by the above Festival features the work of this Turkish composer (the work published by Schott and surely be available soon)  and performed by the star soloist Sabine Meyer, one of the most noteworthy Clarinetists in the world.  Information on the work, the soloist, and the composer are below.

               In the wake of concertos for violin and trumpet, Fazil Say has now composed his first solo concerto for clarinet for Sabine Meyer. The title of the work refers to the Persian poet, philosopher, mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyam who lived during the eleventh century and was one of the greatest scholars of his time.

               The three-movement clarinet concerto depicts stages and themes associated with his life: childhood and adolescence, scholarship, religious criticism and additionally his love for his wife which Khayyam expressed with exceptional frankness in his poetry.

 

He is not only a brilliant pianist, but will without doubt also become one of the great artists of the 21st century. (Le Figaro)

          Fazil Say was born in Ankara on 14 January 1970. He began playing the piano at the age of four and commenced piano studies when he was eleven. A workshop with David Levine and Aribert Reimann in Ankara provided the decisive impulse to begin composing. It was also the same outstanding musicians who succeeded in securing a place for the young up-and-coming talent at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule in Düsseldorf. Fazil Say subsequently continued his studies at the Berlin Conservatory of Music from1992 to 1995. He composed his work Black Hymns at the age of sixteen. His career was given further impetus through the award of the first prize at the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York; since then Fazil Say has given over 100 concerts each year. Large-scale compositions followed such as the 2nd Piano Concerto Silk Road which Say premiered in Boston in 1996 and performed more than a dozen times during the concert season 2003/2004. He was Artist in Residence at Radio France in both 2003 and 2005. He was invited to be Artist in Residence by the Music Festival in Bremen in 2005 and by the Konzerthaus Dortmund in 2007. Fazil Say founded a world jazz quintet in 2000 with whom he has performed in numerous jazz festivals including Montreux and Istanbul.

           Say’s musical career is characterised by his double role as composer and internationally renowned pianist. His musical concepts are influenced by his great interest in jazz and improvisation and he frequently incorporates these elements into his compositions, producing highly virtuoso adaptations of works for piano such as the jazz fantasy based on Mozart’s Alla Turca (1993), Paganini Jazz (1995) or the 4 Pieces for DJ and Piano (2003). His oratorio Nazim, set to verses by the Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet and commissioned by the Turkish Ministry for Cultural Affairs was given its first performance in Ankara in the presence of the Turkish President in 2001. Say composed his 3rd Piano Concerto in 2002 as a commission by Radio France and Kurt Masur and premiered it with the Orchestre National de Radio France under the baton of Eliahu Inbal. The first performance of his oratorio Requiem für Metin Altiok was given at the Istanbul Festival to an audience of 5000 in July 2003. He performed in the premiere of his 4th Piano Concerto Thinking Einstein in Lucerne in May 2005.

           In the Mozart commemorative year 2006, the city of Vienna commissioned the ballet Patara as homage to the great Classical composer: the first performance was given on 1 February 2006. One year previously, Say had completed his rhapsodic piano composition Black Earth which also embraces elements of Turkish folklore. A further composition for piano solo completed in 2006 was Inside Serail which was performed at the Salzburg Festival. Fazil Say composed his first violin concerto with the allusive title 1001 Nights in a Harem in 2008. The premiere of this work took place in Lucerne performed by the dedicatee of the work, the Moldavian violinist Patricia Kopatschinskaja, and the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under the direction of John Axelrod. This violin concerto is Say’s first ambitious orchestral work without a solo part for the composer. The title is an allusion to the collection of oriental fairy tales, the “Arabian Nights”. The solo violin undertakes the role of the seductive, untiring storyteller Scheherazade. The composer is adventurous in his atmospheric orchestral texture and the utilisation of Turkish percussion instruments in bridging the gap between the music of his native country, elements of jazz and European art music.

            Alongside numerous awards for his piano performances, Fazil Say has also received other accolades including the silver London International Award in 2007 and, in the following year, the German Art Directors Club prize. He also received the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis for his arrangement of Stravinsky’s “Sacre du Printemps” for piano duet.

 

           Sabine Meyer is regarded as one of the most outstanding soloists of our time. It is largely due to her that the clarinet, often underestimated as a solo instrument, has regained its prominence on the concert platform.

          After studying with Otto Hermann in Stuttgart and Hans Deinzer in Hanover, Sabine Meyer joined the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich and subsequently played with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra as solo clarinet. As she became increasingly in demand, as a soloist, she left the Berlin Philharmonic one year later and she now performs worldwide in concert, as well as on the radio and TV. Sabine Meyer has given recitals and concerts in all the major European musical centres, as well as in Brazil, Israel, Canada, Africa and Australia. For the past twenty years, she has also regularly performed in Japan and the USA and most recently in chamber concerts with Gidon Kremer and Oleg Maisenberg at Carnegie Hall, Ann Arbor and Houston.

            Sabine Meyer was featured “Artist in Residence” at the Lucerne Festival in 2000, where she performed a wide variety of repertoire including the world première of Metamorphosis composed by Toshio Hosokawa, and performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Heinz Holliger. She returns regularly to the Lucerne Festival as guest soloist with the Festival Orchestra under the baton of Claudio Abbado. In summer 2002, Sabine Meyer made her debut with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, as part of the Salzburg Festival with conductor Christian Thielemann.
Additionally, she has performed in various chamber music projects: duo recitals with Lars Vogt, the Bläserensemble Sabine Meyer, as well as with the Big Band of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. A committed chamber music player Sabine Meyer has performed with Barbara Hendricks, Bruno Canino, Aloys Kontarsky, Heinrich Schiff, Gidon Kremer, the Alban Berg and Hagen Quartets, and the Vienna String Sextet. In 2005/2006 she toured in Europe with the Hagen Quartet, and in the USA with the Tokyo String Quartet.

          In 1983, Sabine Meyer founded “Trio di Clarone” with her husband Reiner Wehle and her brother Wolfgang Meyer involving original works of Mozart with Bassetthorn. In 1988, Sabine Meyer founded the “Bläserensemble Sabine Meyer”, which is a collaboration between Principal woodwind soloists of major European orchestras. This Ensemble regularly performs internationally with a versatile repertoire, from classical to the present.

           A huge exponent of new music, composers including Jean Francaix, Edison Denissov, Harald Genzmer, Toshio Hosokawa, Niccolo Castiglioni, Manfred Trojahn and many more have dedicated their compositions to Ms. Meyer. In February 2008 she will perform the new double concerto for two clarinets by Peter Eötvös together with her brother Wolfgang Meyer.

           She has a prolific discography with EMI Classics including contemporary compilations, chamber collaborations, and the important solo concertos. In 1994 and 1996, she was awarded the ECHO-prizes of "Artist of the Year" for her exemplary recordings of the Stamitz Concertos. In 2000, she received this prestigious award for her recording of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and Claudio Abbado. In Autumn 2003 she received it for the fourth time for the recording of works by Weber, Mendelssohn and Baermans with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.

          Sabine Meyer gives regular master classes in Germany, Italy, Austria, Japan and the USA. In 1993 she became professor at the Music Conservatoire in Lübeck.

 
 

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Revised: August 22, 2011