NEW CHAMBER WORKS BY KAMRAN INCE

WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM TROY1565 ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 © 2015 ALBANY RECORDS MADE IN THE USA DDD WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL. KAMRAN INCE Asumani Kamran Ince & Friends TROY1565 ] ] II 4:44

[ 3:34 clarinet [ piano ]

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] 13:05 [ piano cello ) mezzo 10:50 [ III )

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(Carina Nyberg Washington,

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piano RDS kemençe ECO R Y 5 ALBAN Hüseyin Sermet, Özgen Duo (Neva Özgen, Yelda Özgen Öztürk, KAMRAN INCE Asumani (2012) Symphony in Blue (2012) 201

WWW.ALBANYRECORDS.COM ALBANY RECORDS U.S. 915 BROADWAY, ALBANY, NY 12207 TEL: 518.436.8814 FAX: 518.436.0643 ALBANY RECORDS U.K. BOX 137, KENDAL, CUMBRIA LA8 0XD TEL: 01539 824008 ©

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NEW CHAMBER WORKS BY KAMRAN INCE NEW CHAMBER TROY1565

WARNING: COPYRIGHT SUBSISTS IN ALL RECORDINGS ISSUED UNDER THIS LABEL.

Asumani KAMRAN INCE KAMRAN Friends & Ince Kamran TROY1565 THE COMPOSER The music of Turkish/American composer Kamran Ince bridges Anatolia and the Balkans to the West. The energy and rawness of Turkish and Balkan folk music, the spirituality of Byzantium and Ottoman court music, the tradition of European art music and the extrovert and popular qualities of the American psyche are the base of his sound world. These ingredients happily breathe in cohesion, and they spin the linear and vertical contrasts so essential to his music forward.

Hailed by The Los Angeles Times as “that rare composer able to sound connected with modern music, and yet still seem exotic,” Ince was born in in 1960 to American and Turkish parents. He holds a Doctorate from , and currently serves as Professor of Composition at and at MIAM Center for Advanced Research in Music at the Istanbul Technical University. His numerous prizes include the Rome Prize, the Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lili Boulanger Prize and the Arts and Letters Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His Waves of Talya was named one of the best chamber works of the 20th century by a living composer in the Chamber Music Magazine.

His works are performed by such orchestras as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Prague Symphony Orchestra, and such ensembles as the Nederlands Blazers Ensemble, Chanticleer Choir and the Los Angeles Piano Quartet. Concerts devoted to his music have been heard at the Holland Festival, CBC Encounter Series (Toronto), the Istanbul International Music Festival, Estoril Festival (Lisbon), TurkFest (London), and Cultural Influences in Globalization Festival (Ho Chi Minh City). In addition to symphonic and chamber works, his catalogue also includes music for film and ballet. His music is published exclusively by Schott Music Corporation.

Commissions he has received include those from Ford Foundation, Fromm Foundation, Koussevitzky Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Reader’s Digest and Pew Charitable Trust. Important projects include Songs in Other Words (2014) (six kernels from Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words recomposed) for Spark and Schleswig-Holstein Festival (released on Berlin Classics); Fortuna Sepio Nos (2013), a piano trio for Arkas Trio; it’s a nasreddin (2013) for Berlin Counterpoint and Istanbul Festival; Zamboturfidir (2012) for Irish Arts Council for Yurodny (Dublin) and Hezarfen (Istanbul); Still, Flow, Surge (2011) for choir and orchestra for Present Music’s 30th anniversary; Concerto for Orchestra, Turkish Instruments and Voices (2009) for the Turkish Ministry of Ince’s father was Turkish; his mother is American. He grew up partly in each country and now splits time Culture; Dreamlines (2008) to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Turkish Chamber of Architects; Music for between Memphis, Tennessee, and Istanbul. Ince is first and foremost a composer in the Western classical a Lost Earth (ambient music project) (2007); Gloria (Everywhere) (2007) for the Chanticleer Mass project tradition, but he is not bound by that tradition. He is also well versed in Ottoman classical music and grounded (released on Warner Classics And on Earth, Piece); Turquoise (2006), a mix of his works arranged for the in Turkish culture. In ways sometimes explicit and sometimes subtle, his music reflects that dual heritage. Nederlands Blazers Ensemble (released on NBELive), and 5th Symphony Galatasaray (2005) in honor of the infamous soccer club’s (winner of the European and the World Super Cup in 2000) centennial celebrations. Asumani, the title track of this CD, is the most obvious example of Turkish influence on this disc. Ince pairs the Western cello with either the classical kemençe, a small string bowed instrument held upright Five Naxos CDs of Ince’s music have been released. They are Music for a Lost Earth, Galatasaray, with the tail on the knee, or the ney, an end-blown flute, made of reed. Both the ney and the kemençe Hammers & Whistlers, Constantinople and Kamran Ince. His other CDs include In White and Passion and instruments figure in mystical Sufi worship. On this recording, Neva Özgen’s kemençe brings out the Dreams on Innova, Fall of Constantinople on Argo/Decca and Kamran Ince & Friends on Albany. spiritual yearning Ince wrote into Asumani, a term that expresses a reaching for the heavens in order to become enveloped in the love of the almighty. Özgen, with cellist Yelda Özgen, inflects Ince’s innately Ince’s Judgment of Midas, an opera in two acts, commissioned by Crawford Greenewalt to mark the 50th haunting hexachord scale — D (supported with C-sharp below), E-flat, F-sharp, G, A, B-flat, C-natural — anniversary of Sardis/Lydia excavations, had its concert version premiere in April 2013 in Milwaukee with to profound effect. The melodies rise from a mist of scrapings and murmurings of unstopped strings, as if Present Music and Milwaukee Opera Theatre with Ince conducting (released by Albany Records). Its staged all of creation were arising from nothingness. premiere, under the direction of the composer, was given by the Istanbul State Opera at the Istanbul International Opera Festival in June 2015. Ince typically notates down to the last detail, but in this case he allows the kemençe an episode of improvisation in the style of Ottoman Classical music, on a specified scale over an up-and-down pedal in the cello. The improvisation fits into a firm, ingenious structure that gathers the wildness of the music into a cohesive whole. THE MUSIC Hakan Erdog˘an commissioned Asumani. Neyzen (a master ney player) Kudsi Ergüner and cellist Eric Kamran Ince’s music sounds spontaneous and volatile, just what you’d expect from the bigger-than-life Maria Coutier gave the premiered at the Bach Before & After concert series at the St. Antuan Cathedral in personality of this uncommonly passionate composer. Istanbul in March of 2012.

So much of this music inhabits the extremes of both sublime and violent expression and tests the sonic Symphony in Blue opens with staccato clusters that punch the ear at odd, unpredictable time intervals. A possibilities of the instruments. Musicians can approach it with nothing less that total mastery, total abandon, brief episode of plucked piano strings follows. The clusters return. Then a charming, high tinkling of ivories and a reckless commitment to its emotional and rhythmic impetus. The many musicians Ince gathered to drifts atop the plucking, now in the low strings. Mellow chords flow as pianist Hüseyin Sermet hums a low record these varied pieces have in common not only the big technique his music requires, but also the vocal. It all seems arbitrary and unrelated at first. But as the music plays out over 12-plus minutes, we wildness and intensity it demands. They are Ince’s triumphant champions, and he is their inspiration. hear these elements combined systematically — two at a time, then three, then more — in varied ways. The music creates and solves its own puzzle, and thus unfolds as a visceral, emotional and intellectual They have recorded a disc of music infused with passion in both composition and execution in every bar. experience all at once. The Istanbul Modern Museum commissioned Symphony in Blue in honor of a rare showing of Burhan The Snyder Duo (harpsichord and viola) commissioned this Road to Memphis and played the premiere in Dog˘ançay’s painting of the same name. It was premiered by Hüseyin Sermet at the museum in June 2012. May 2009 at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in New York. Maggie and Minnie Snyder grew up in Memphis and encouraged Ince to bring some Memphis sound into the new work. Far Variations, for piano quartet, might be the most structurally clear and tightly knit piece on the disc. The theme is not so much a melody as a tiny, three-note kernel of an idea: An ascending leap, a descending “Although I have been associated with Memphis all these years I never really consciously used musical step. Though constantly malleable in particular pitch, this insinuating gesture sticks in the mind through all material from Memphis,” Ince has said. “It ‘s like being from Egypt but never visiting the Pyramids — you 11 variations and holds the music together as it traverses a diverse emotional and sonic landscape. The take them for granted. Memphis is a strange and unique place. It is one of the most influential cities of the music is about longing for a distant place, a feeling that Ince, with his far-flung homes, knows well. The development of 20th-century popular music and culture. Although I use my Turkish side with other ingredients especially vivid “dance fire” variation puts us in the middle of a whirling folk dance. But it suddenly sputters all the time, this is the first time I have done it with Memphis-influenced sounds.” to a halt and fades away like a memory. Two-Step Passion opens with the violin (Cihat As¸kın) and cello (Yelda Özgen) snarling and surly with The Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, with the sponsorship of Sherrill Akyol in memory of Dr. Salim Akyol, bows right down on the bridges. Driving piano chords (Ince) add locomotive momentum. The whole of commissioned Far Variations. The Los Angeles Piano Quartet premiered the piece in April of 2010 in Tucson. it suggests the most savage of folk dances, and Ince doesn’t let up. This Turkish danse macabre grows relentlessly more fierce for all of its three and a half minutes. Near the end, it sheds its folkish trappings The “low, airy sounds of the alto flute” inspired Drawings, commissioned by Marie Sander in 2001. She and becomes frighteningly mechanized. premiered the work with pianist Philip Bush, in May 2003 in Madison, Wisconsin. An alto flute gesture wafts gently at the outset, adrift above lush Impressionist chords. A high, clanging ostinato barges in, The German group Spark commissioned Two Step Passion, composed in 2011, as an extended version of prompting an antic piccolo twittering – a miniature scherzo of sorts — before a new version of the opening To Feel Passionate With from Music for a Lost Earth. Spark premiered the work at the Scheleslig-Holstein material begins and develops a little. Sander moves on to C-flute, to play an inversion of the alto flute Music Festival, Germany in August 2011. The Spark instrumentation is for sopranino recorder, melodica, theme over an ecstatic reworking of the Impressionist chords in sparkling arpeggios. Near the end, Ince violin, cello and piano. Ince created the present piano trio (violin, cello and piano) version in 2013. Spark’s quotes his own Arches, one of his most transcendent works. version of Two-Step Passion was released on their Deutsche Grammophon CD Folk Tunes.

The composer’s athletic piano playing exactly fits the rambunctious Road to Memphis, from 2009. Ince Requiem for Mehmet (2009) opens not with a dolorous lament for the composer’s dear friend Mehmet and violist Özcan Ulucan pound the daylights out of this version for viola and piano (originally for viola and Aktug˘, who died suddenly at age 50. Rather, in a show of strength instead of sorrow, a muscular rumbling harpsichord) for nearly nine minutes. That’s the point. This is about trading musical punches, so to speak, rises from the low reaches of the three pianos. A minute passes, and a theme begins to take shape within in exchanges of throbbing, insistent viola fortissimos and raucous piano clusters. Ince might have been this dark cloud of sound. The theme multiplies as it rises from the depths and its tendrils wind tightly around channeling Jimi Hendrix in some of the viola passages and the most crazed sort of bluegrass fiddling in one another. As they do so, the rumbling quiets; when the themes dissipate, they leave a calm low pedal. others. Blues and boogie-woogie bass lines growl into the mix now and then. Then the rave-up seems to The air clears. An alarm sounds in a tremolo in the higher range; it persists and slips into the low range again, punch its way through the looking glass. The music quiets down, and we find ourselves in a surreal sound as the rumble returns. It gives way to a brief chant and a long resonance that fades into the ether. The work world replete with the composers’ gruff, bizarre singing. You might need a stiff drink after this one. was commissioned by Zeynep Üçbas¸aran and premiered in Atlanta by 3 Piano Project in October 2010. The protagonist in Jerry Dye’s strikingly original libretto for Abandoned is the long-abandoned Sears and Abandoned Roebuck building in downtown Memphis, Tennessee. Dye casts the massive building as a woman pining for Scene: An abandoned building speaks to the sun at night her lover — the sun — in the dark of night. Being a building, she has no sense of time. Thus, she fears Character: a large, deserted, gray battleship of a building facing east. the darkness will never end and she will forever be alone. Time and Place: 3 a.m., autumn, Memphis, Tennessee.

Ince assigned Dye’s exquisite poetry for mezzo — here, the gorgeous voice and diamond-clear elocution You will never return. your smile that cuts the night in two. of Peabody Southwell, accompanied by the Prizm Ensemble (clarinet, violin and cello). The 13-minute I know this. Nothing on earth compares to you. monodrama, commisoned by Opera Memphis and completed in early 2014, premiered on the Memphis I’ve resolved myself... Not the moon - lazy in the deathless sky. Opera Ghosts of Crosstown festival of short operas in April 2014. or else I must wrestle with this UNresolving Not the stars- all buckshot scatter. again again until the fact of it hits! Where have you gone, my love? A murmuring tune in the lower register of the clarinet and a bit of string pizzicato introduce the work. These two trifles have a certain blunt charm. They persist in the mind yet are blank enough to invite elaboration Nothing feels I hold you now, my love. as the piece goes on. Ince makes them, in tandem, the key organizing feature. quite so heavy Quietly here, in my mind, my love. as missing you. Softly here, in my heart, my love. The voice line ranges freely in a through-composed arioso lament worthy of Dido. Ince couches the singing And the night it’s so cruel- spreading out Shhhhhhhhhhhh... very comfortably in harmonies that intrigue yet support and always puts the voice front and center. You drunk and dragging its body behind itself can’t whistle the tune on the way out of the theater, because it constantly develops and never repeats itself until every room is washed blue-grey near nothingness. I will find patience. melodically. But the lines are generously singable and touchingly emotional. You will want the Sears building I am patient. to find happiness. But I’m here. I’m here. I’m here. I will find stillness. In case you change your mind. I’m here. I am still. In interludes between stanzas and sometimes beneath the voice, that complex of murmuring and pizzicato Facing eastward, waiting, drops in often, sometimes in ingenious variation and sometimes more or less verbatim. The voice roams staring endlessly over rooftops So, this is all to say... I miss you, while the instruments bind the structure. It all happens so subtly that the listener can simply be lost in the while the street cools beneath my feet if missing were word enough. fanciful, poetic romance of it. Come back. If missing could bring you back. You left, turning the sky into fire. Please come back? Come back. And now I am so much less of a thing. Okay, then. Come back. I understand. I do. I’ll try... To see your face. to diminish and distract, To see your face... paint peeling from my walls, dust burying me in soundlessness, In your absence, I am absence itself. THE PERFORMERS and rain, and rust, and wind, Come back. Leonardo Altino (Far Variations) I will try. Come back. Born in Pernambuco, Brazilian cellist Leonardo Altino gave his first performance with orchestra performing I will try to stand my ground Come back. the Saint-Saens Concerto No. 1 at age 11. His national breakthrough came at 14 when Altino was the while the night world falls around me. Come back. youngest winner at the Jovens Concertistas Brasileiros, a prestigious competition in Rio de Janeiro, which

led to performances with every major orchestra and hall in his home country. Praised by the Strad Magazine But maybe you could give me a sign? Just maybe? —Tom Strini for his “exceptional musical intelligence and an exceptionally cultivated sound,” Altino was the First Prize winner at the International Cello Competition Dr. Luis Sigall in Viña Del Mar, and has since appeared as Just save me. soloist and in recitals throughout Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Greece, Italy, Korea, Taiwan, and the Burn me through. . The cellist presently teaches at the University of Memphis. Burn me through. Burn me through. Soh-Hyun Park Altino (Far Variations) Soh-Hyun Park Altino was born in Seoul, Korea, into a family of musicians. She began her violin lessons at age five and came to the United States at age 16 to continue her studies at the Peabody Institute and the Annotator Tom Strini teaches writing at Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon. He was the music and Cleveland Institute of Music. In Cleveland, Soh-Hyun studied with the renowned violinist and pedagogue, dance critic for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for 27 years and senior editor of Third Coast Daily online Donald Weilerstein and received her degrees, bachelor’s to doctoral in violin performance. It was also during magazine in Milwaukee for four more years. Through that period, Strini covered Kamran Ince’s long and that time that her passion and commitment to teaching became her calling. She has since taught in many vastly fruitful collaboration with Present Music. Strini holds a bachelor’s degree in music composition and festivals around the world and appeared in concert and as soloist in Brazil, Colombia, Germany, Korea, theory and a master’s in classical guitar from Southern Illinois University. Venezuela and the United States. A chamber music lover to the core, Soh-Hyun plays in the Ceruti Quartet and is the founding member of the Dúnamis Trio. She currently teaches at the University of Memphis.

Cihat As¸kın (Two Step Passion) After studying with Ayhan Turan in Istanbul, Cihat As¸kın completed his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in London at the Royal College of Music and at City University. He served as director of the Turkish Music Conservatory and co-director of MIAM, both at Istanbul Technical University, where he is professor of violin. He has given concerts across Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA. He has many CD’s released by Kalan Muzik. In 2007, he founded As¸kın Ensemble, a chamber orchestra that also performs new Turkish music. In 2004, he realized an educational project called Cihat As¸kın and Little Friends (CAKA), which aims to support young talents and develop violin education throughout Turkey. The virtuoso uses a violin by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume (1846) and Joseph Gagliano (1796) in his concerts. Philip Bush (Drawings) Yelda Özgen Öztürk (Asumani, Two Step Passion) Phillip Bush is a pianist of uncommon versatility with a repertoire extending from the 16th century to the Born in Ankara, Yelda Özgen studied cello at Istanbul University State Conservatory. She graduated from 21st. Since his New York recital debut at the Metropolitan Museum in 1984, Mr. Bush has appeared as Mimar Sinan University, Department of Mathematics in 1996 and continued her cello studies with Reyent recitalist throughout North America, as well as in Europe, Asia and the Caribbean. He made his Carnegie Bölükbas¸ı at Istanbul Technical University, MIAM, where she received her master’s and doctoral degrees Hall concerto debut in 2001 with the London Sinfonietta to critical acclaim, replacing an ailing Peter Serkin. in 2009. In addition to playing solo and chamber music, Özgen is a member of the Anatolia and Askin A fierce advocate for contemporary music, Phillip Bush has performed often with the most renowned new ensembles. With the Anatolia Ensemble she was featured in two CDs, “Agean and Balkan Dances” and music ensembles, including Bang on a Can All-Stars, Philip Glass Ensemble, Steve Reich and Musicians, “Itri and Meragi.” She teaches cello at İstanbul Technical University Turkish Music Conservatory and is the Group for Contemporary Music and Newband, Sequitur, Parnassus and New Music Consort. From 1995 assistant director of MIAM. until 2010 he was a member of the Milwaukee-based new music group, Present Music. The PRIZM Ensemble (Abandoned) Anthony Gilbert (Far Variations) A mixed-instrument chamber ensemble, PRIZM is proud to serve as a gateway into classical music, and all Anthony Gilbert is a violist from Memphis, Tennessee. He studied music at , graduating in performances are fun, energetic, and engaging. Repertoire ranges from standard classic repertoire to accessible 2001, and received his M.A. from Roosevelt University, Chicago College of Performing Arts in 2003. While in contemporary music, and it often includes collaborations with different art forms. As an ensemble that is Chicago, Anthony acted as Co-Principal Viola of The Civic Orchestra of Chicago and was a member of the committed to chamber music education, a portion of all concerts includes performances by young musicians faculty at Northeastern Illinois University and the Merit School of Music. From 2007 to 2011, Anthony served from the ensemble’s educational programs: PRIZM Chamber Music Festival, and PRIZM in the Schools. The as Executive Director of the Eroica Ensemble — a performing group based in Memphis that celebrates the Ensemble is based in Memphis, Tennessee, and performs locally as well as nationally. distinctive value of classical music in contemporary society and offers classical concerts to the public free of charge. As a chamber musician, Anthony performs regularly with the PRIZM Ensemble and the Memphis Marie Sander (Drawings) Chamber Music Society. Marie Sander is a flutist, educator, and founding member of the contemporary music group Present Music, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. From performing in Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center with the Milwaukee Neva Özgen (Asumani, Two Step Passion) Symphony Orchestra to playing at the Bang on A Can Festival with Present Music, she has appeared in Neva Özgen was born in 1977. She received her undergraduate, master and doctoral degrees from the many diverse venues. She has been a guest artist on Wisconsin Public Radio, a featured soloist in the John Istanbul Technical University Turkish Music State Conservatory, where she is currently an associate professor. Downey Music Festival in London, England, and is a sought after ensemble player. In addition to her private She has performed as soloist with Anatolia Ensemble, Montreal Tribal Trio, Atlas Ensemble, Nederlands studio, Marie has enjoyed teaching at Alverno College and Concordia University Wisconsin. Blazers Ensemble, Shujaat Hussain Khan, Deepak Ram, Peter Murphy, Mich Geber, Kudsi Erguner, Frangiz Ali-Zade, Javanshir Guliev, Theo Loevendi, and Kamran Ince among others. Since 2009 she has thought Hüseyin Sermet (Symphony in Blue) kemence and Turkish maqam music at the Amsterdam Conservatory’s Atlas Academy. She has helped Turkish pianist Hüseyin Sermet’s recent solo appearances are with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra many composers write new music for the kemence. Her debut album, Legacy, was released in 2001 by the (Lawrence Foster), Trondheim Symfoniorkester (Krzysztof Urba´nski) and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Golden Horn Records. Berlin (Sir Roger Norrington), Tokyo Symphony and Osaka Philharmonic orchestras (both under Urba´nski), the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (Michel Plasson), Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia (Sir Neville Marriner) and Sinfonica Nazionale della Rai (Tito Ceccherini). A devoted mentor of young talent and highly regarded for his ACKNOWLEDGMENTS many appearances in Japan, Sermet was filmed by NHK TV for a series of fifteen televised masterclasses Asumani, Road to Memphis, Two Step Passion Requiem for Mehmet, recorded, edited and mixed with young pianists broadcast throughout Japan. recorded and edited by Is¸ık Günsel Yılmaz, mixed by Barbara Hirsch, Opus 1 mobile recording, by Can Karadog˘an December 2012-March 2013, September 2010, Santa Barbara, California USA. Many of Hüseyin Sermet’s numerous recordings for Naïve, harmonia mundi and Erato have won major at MIAM Center for Advanced Research in Music international prizes, among them several Diapason d’Or de l’Année. at Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul Turkey. Abandoned, recorded by Jeff Cline at University of Memphis Scheidt School of Music Studios, April Peabody Southwell (Abandoned) Symphony in Blue recorded, edited and mixed 2014, Memphis, Tennessee USA. Edited by Kamran Lauded by Opera Magazine UK for her “stylistic mastery and ripe, sensual sound” American mezzo-soprano by Pieter Snapper July 2012, at MIAM Center for Ince, mixed by Pieter Snapper, June 2014 at MIAM Peabody Southwell “is going places” (Los Angeles Times). Recent debuts include principal roles at Carnegie Advanced Research in Music at Istanbul Technical Center for Advanced Research in Music at Istanbul Hall, Los Angeles Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and University, Istanbul Turkey. Technical University, Istanbul Turkey. New World Symphony conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, James Conlon and Robert Spano. Committed to contemporary music, she has premiered many works for modern composers including Lee Holdridge, Bruno Far Variations, recorded by Jeff Cline at University All works mastered by Pieter Snapper, Babajim Louchouarn and Kamran Ince with upcoming premieres for Thomas Morse, Nathaniel Stookey and David Lang. of Memphis Scheidt School of Music Studios, Istanbul Studios, June-July 2014, Istanbul Turkey. March 2012, Memphis, Tennessee USA. Edited Özcan Ulucan (Road to Memphis) and mixed by Can Karadog˘an June 2012, at All works published by Schott Music Corporation Özcan Ulucan is a Turkish violin and viola player who was born in Bulgaria. He has studied in Bulgaria, MIAM Center for Advanced Research in Music at (ASCAP), New York. Turkey, UK and Germany with Yfrah Neaman, Viktor Pikaizen, Joshua Epstein and Maxim Vengerov who Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul Turkey. called him “The most accomplished among my students, he is a true follower of my music philosophy Photo of Kamran Ince by Merih Akog˘ul. on stage..” Özcan has played with English Chamber Orchestra, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Vienna Chamber Drawings, recorded and edited at Remote Planet, Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra London in venues such as Royal Albert Hall London, Konzerthaus by Rick Probst November 2004 in Milwaukee, This recording was made possible by the generous Berlin, Wels Festival, Ludwigsburg Festival, Budapest Spring Festival and Amsterdam Concertgebow, and Wisconsin USA, mixed by Pieter Snapper June 2014, support of John Shannon, Jan Serr, Alice M. Ditson together with Maxim Vengerov and the legendary Maestro Mstislav Rostropovich conducting the Amsterdam at MIAM Center for Advanced Research in Music Fund of Columbia University, and the American Sinfonietta. Özcan has two CD recordings on Lila Music İstanbul. at Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul Turkey. Academy of Art and Letters (as part of the 2013 Arts and Letters Award). 3 Piano Project (Requiem for Mehmet) Turkish pianist Zeynep Üçbas¸aran’s 3 Piano Project includes the Spanish pianist Miguel A. Ortega Chavaldas and the Brazilian pianist Sergio Gallo. The group was established to release first recordings of a number of important 20th Century works for three pianos as well as new works written for them.