PASSAGE
Coming Summer 2025!
Featuring:
Sonata by Lawson Lunde
-Mvt. I Allegro
-Mvt. II Andantino cantabile
-Mvt. III Allegro vivace
Talisman of Selma by Tolga Zafer Özdemir
Candela by Lorenzo Simoni
Karpathia by Tolga Zafer Özdemir
About the Album
When contemplating identity, we often focus on "who we are" and "what defines us." However, identity is more about the process of becoming than merely being. Passage reflects Kendra's musical journey and growth at this stage of her career by exploring underperformed standard repertoire and diverse, culturally rich contemporary works for the classical saxophone.
Each piece represents the dynamic relationship between past and present, tradition and innovation. It invites listeners to experience how music evolves and resonates across varied personal and cultural landscapes.
Passage culminates a meaningful musical, educational, and pedagogical growth period in Kendra's life.
Program Information
Sonata by Lawson Lunde
Lawson Lunde (November 22, 1935 - September 5, 2019): Born in Chicago, IL, Lunde began playing the piano by ear at four. He studied music at the Chicago Musical College, and his composition teachers were Vittorio Rieti and Robert Delaney. He earned a degree in Psychology from Northwestern University in 1957. While he played piano for a living, composing was his main interest. Most of the music he wrote was for the saxophone, even though he never played the instrument. Some of his prominent works include Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano, Alpine Sonata for soprano saxophone and piano, and Suite for Saxophone Quartet.
Talisman of Selma by Togla Zafer Özdemir
1950 Istanbul -
Halim and Nevzat are old friends. Nevat is a public officer who plans to marry a woman he loves. Halim is a successful poet who lives a peaceful life in Ankara with his wife and child.
Nevzat invites him to Istanbul to introduce his beloved to his friend and see what Hal Im thinks. Hal Im understands his friend’s feelings, but he also gets suspicious because of her past.
Selma, a beloved woman, lives in a big mansion with her servants. Selma’s father, both two husbands, and her housekeeper have committed suicide, and she cannot forget such events, although many years have passed. She never talks to anyone outside and lives in her inner world, which makes her called “The Shadow.”.
Selma agrees to meet with Halim, Nevzat's close friend. Both Selma and Halim enjoyed this meeting. At the beginning, Nevzat is relaxed that she fancies his friend, but in the following days, he becomes jealous. These close friends separate from each other and question themselves, their lives, and friendships from time to time. This pestiferous period separates Nevzat and Selma and causes Hal time to be close to Selma.
Under the effect of his relationship with Selma, Halim cares about nothing anymore: his wife, his child, his mother, his close friend Nevzat, things he wants to do in his life, and even himself... Selma becomes a focus in his life.
Nevzat denies this new relationship to himself, but he is also suspicious. He tried to hate Selma with the consolation by thinking about her like others: Selma is a nymphomaniac, Selma is sick, and she even may be a murderer.
He is suspicious that Selma is responsible for the suicides. He should not see her anymore. But he will not be able to make his decision.
He hears shocking news that Halim has committed suicide, and Selma goes to Venice. Nevzat has more confusing feelings now because he introduced his friend to Selma. Did Halim die because of his guilty conscience or was he killed by Selma?
Would Nevzat be able to take her out from his life?
There is only one solution to find the answers: Go to Venice after her.
Mehmet Gürel i November 2007
*Program note provided by the composer
Candela by Lorenzo Simoni
Candela is a new composition for alto saxophone solo written in 2020 by Lorenzo Simoni, musician from Italy, the main inspiration behind this work are the movements of the candle’s flame: unpredictable but constant without interruptions. Most of the modern techniques of the saxophone are used in this piece such as quarter tones, circular breathing, multhiphonics and slap tonguing.
Karpathia by Tolga Zafer Özdemir
The idea started as a musical painting of the entire Balkan region without sacrificing any local essence. The name derives from the mountain chain “Carpathians”, crossing the Balkan Peninsula from one side to the other, touching proudly all kind of music on its way. I have chosen different distinctive musical styles as different colors and paint with them. Meanwhile, using my compositional brush boldly, I put the styles as layers on top of each other to create shimmering, bright colors. The result was quite satisfying for me besides one psychological-musical struggle: the slow, imperial rhythmic pattern, constantly sticking out from the picture and belonging nowhere. The problem has found its answer after I encountered these quotations while searching:
“Ottoman Military bands, or Mehter Takimi (in Turkish), are considered to be the oldest type of military marching band in the world.”
“The splendor and dramatic effect of their percussion would give rise to the adoption of bass drum, cymbals, and triangle, as well as piccolo to cut through the noise of the percussion.”
That particular rhythmic pattern I was using unconsciously was one of the authentic musical figure “Mehter Takimi” plays. It was the “musical heritage” of Ottoman Empire; integration of Anatolian music into the Balkan cultures throughout the centuries.
Karpathia does not symbolize any country, instead, it stands for the joyful Balkan people who are modest enough to be proud just living a life. Either happily dancing all together or arrogantly fighting to choke each other, they always can maintain such a big humoresque perspective and a big laugh to the life and destiny.
As a new perspective to the concerto literature, “Karpathia” preliminarily emphasizes the characterization of the instrument instead of virtuoso playing. The Alto saxophone represents his being to the orchestra and morph from one shape to another to survive in the musical environment. The personality remains the same, with a distinguishable melody and style throughout the piece: satiric, loud, and overconfident but full of joy. The saxophone finally reveals its fragile and sad side in the beginning of the third movement, with the help of a transparent piano accompaniment. Judging the life naked and face to face, his satiric and loud side wins against sadness as the result of experience, which leads us to the end with enjoyment and proud.
“Karpathia” is also important as the first wind ensemble piece written by a Turkish composer, although medium gets its roots all the way back from Ottoman Military bands.
*Program Note provided by the composer
Collaborators
Nik Caoile, piano
Nikolas Caoile is a conductor, pianist, and music educator. Currently, he is Music Director and Conductor of the Wenatchee Valley Symphony Orchestra and Director of Orchestras at Central Washington University. He also serves as Orchestra Conductor for the Midsummer Musical Retreat. He previously served as Music Director of Lake Union Civic Orchestra and Principal Conductor of the Salem Chamber Orchestra. He has conducted many other orchestras including: Third Angle New Music, Auburn Symphony, Harmonia, Northwest Mahler Festival Orchestra, Rainier Symphony, Yakima Symphony, Gig Harbor Symphony, Lake Avenue Orchestra, Olympia Symphony, and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas in collaboration with the Christopher Wheeldon's Morphoses Dance Company at New York City Center. In 2021, the CWU Symphony Orchestra received a prestigious invitation to perform at The Midwest Clinic in Chicago.