Fazıl Say wrote his first piece, which is a piano sonata, as early as 1984, at the age of fourteen when he was a student at the Conservatory of his home town Ankara. It was followed, in this early phase of his development, by several chamber works without an opus number, including Schwarze Hymnen for violin and piano and a guitar concerto. He subsequently designated as his opus I, one of the works that he had played in the concert that won him the Young Concert Artists Auditions in New York: the Four Dances of Nasreddin Hodja. In this respect, Fazıl Say stands to some extent in the tradition of composers like Béla Bartók, George Enescu and György Ligeti, who also drew on the rich musical folklore of their countries. He attracted international attention with the piano piece Black Earth (1997), in which he employs techniques familiar to us from John Cage and his works for prepared piano.
After this, Say increasingly turned to the large orchestral forms. Taking his inspiration from the poetry (and the biographies) of the poets Nâzım Hikmet and Metin Altıok, he composed works for soloists, chorus and orchestra which, especially in the case of the oratorio Nâzim, clearly take up the tradition of composers such as Carl Orff. In the year 2007 he aroused international interest with his Violin Concerto 1001 Nights in the Harem, which is based on the celebrated tales of the same name. Since its world premiere by Patricia Kopatchinskaja, the piece has already received further performances in many international concert halls.
Fazıl Say scored a further great success with his first symphony, the Istanbul Symphony, premiered in 2010 and won him his third Echo Classical Music Award. The same year saw the composition, among other pieces, of his Divorce String Quartet (based on atonal principles), and commissioned works like the Piano Concerto Nirvana Burning for the Salzburg Festival and a Trumpet Concerto for the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, premiered by Gábor Boldoczki. In response to a commission from the 2011 Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Say has also written a Clarinet Concerto for Sabine Meyer that refers to the life and work of the Persian poet Omar Khayyam. Fazıl Say’s works are issued worldwide by the renowned music publishers Schott of Mainz.
SERENAD BAĞCAN
Coming from a family of musicians Serenad Bağcan had a chilhood nested in music. Her relation with the choir has begun with the Ankara Children’s Chorus and continued with RTR Ankara Radio Youth Chorus. Graduated from Ankara University, Faculty of Pharmacy Serenad Bağcan went on her music career without cease during university years. At present she is continuing her music career as an alto in the Polyphonic Chorus of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. She gave successful concerts with Anadolu Selen Chamber Choir, Orfeon Chamber Choir both at home and abroad. These concerts where she sometimes attended as a soloist won high praise by the audience.
Although she sings alto parts in the choir she was often asked to vocalize solo parts due to her ability to master these parts. Making a deep personal connection with the songs she sings is one of her most significant feature as a soloist. Despite the fact that she has an education mainly in the style of Western Classical Music and she has taken part in Western classical kind of choirs, owing to the wide musical perspective she took over from her family, she can also vocalize the works of Turkish Folk Music skillfully. She has created a unique style of her own by synthesizing these two types. Performing many works written for different styles of music Bağcan has a wide-ranged repertoire. The artist currently lives in Ankara and after making the recordings with Fazıl Say for the album “İlk Şarkılar”, she will give concerts within the scope of the project.