Asya Fateyeva as Portrait Artist at the SHMF and with New Album “To the Muse”
For the first time in the nearly 40-year history of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the saxophone takes center stage this year. This has been made possible by Asya Fateyeva, who over the past decade has brought the instrument from its jazz and pop niche into the classical world, even making it respectable there. She showcases the impressive versatility of her instrument as a portrait artist at the SHMF in 17 concerts in July and August. Her new album “To the Muse” will also be released on May 17, 2024, on Berlin Classics.
“A sensation for the music world,” writes the FAZ about Asya Fateyeva. The musician has established herself as an ambassador for the saxophone far beyond national and genre boundaries, not least since her Echo Klassik award in 2016. Now, as a portrait artist at the SHMF, she follows in the footsteps of Daniel Hope – who was the SHMF portrait artist in 2023 – and puts her instrument in the spotlight from all angles, in various genres, and instrumentations.
French Longing on a New Album
For “To the Muse,” Asya Fateyeva has reinterpreted French works by Claude Debussy, Paule Maurice, Henri Tomasi, Bertrand Plé, and the medieval Troubadours. The theme of longing runs through the entire album like a red thread: for example, Henri Tomasi’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone is based on a forbidden love story between a nun and a monk; and in Paule Maurice’s “Tableaux de Provence,” the landscape evokes memories of a friend who will never be near her again. Fateyeva and her fellow musicians use this material as inspiration for free arrangements of the pieces – in new orchestrations for saxophone, hurdy-gurdy, cello, vibraphone, and darbuka. Fateyeva is joined by Matthias Loibner (hurdy-gurdy), Bo Wiget (cello), Emil Kuyumcuyan (vibraphone, darbuka), and the Saarland State Orchestra under Sébastien Rouland. Another facet of sound is shown by Fateyeva in the “Venetian Choral Night”: here, together with the NDR Vocal Ensemble, she uses the saxophone in polyphonic vocal works. “The saxophone can be anything. It leads me further and further and shows me a new side every time,” says Asya Fateyeva about her instrument.
