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December 4, 2020

ECHOES ON DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

We are so excited to share this news with you. It feels like unreal, especially in this unreal times.
Imagine, you go to the schoolroom, practising your saxophone like crazy. And there is a wardrobe, full of legendary recordings. The one with Karajan, Bernstein, Kleiber. If you play good in the lesson, you are allowed to borrow one CD from this wardrobe… On every of this CDs there is this yellow label.

You start to practise. You practice more. You play. You start to dream.

We are so glad to present to you ECHOES, our first e- album on Deutsche Grammophon @dgclassics coming out on 15th of January 2021.
The album itself is a „Herzenssache“ (google trs. Matter of the heart), intimate, reflecting ourselves In this community in this time. In Our time.

August 6, 2020

SIGNUM is SELMER Paris Artist

more on:

> SIGNUM is SELMER Paris Artist

 

 

Blaz Kemperle is playing Soprano Saxophone Selmer Mark VI
Hayrapet Arakelyan is playing Alto Saxophone Selmer Mark VI
Alan Luzar is playing Tenor Saxophone Selmer Serie I
Guerino Bellarosa is playing Baritone Saxophone Selmer Serie II

 

April 21, 2020

NEW PROJECT: GOLDBERG NIGHTS

Through the night with SIGNUM & Kai Schumacher

SIGNUM saxophone quartet
Kai Schumacher, Piano & Prepared Piano

 

Tranquillity and trance, ecstasy and exhaustion, dream and reality – with this new programme the SIGNUM saxophone quartet embarks upon an odyssey through the realms of possibility and contrast called: The Night. These four multi-award-winning and eclectic artists are among the groundbreakers of the young classical music scene. They virtuosically switch between styles and genres in order to celebrate the night in its most diverse musical facets. For their Goldberg Nights project, they have invited a fifth dream-loving night owl who is also at home in more than one artistic universe: the pianist and composer Kai Schumacher.

 

 

The guiding star in the nightly concert heaven is Johann Sebastian Bach, who composed brilliant night music with his Goldberg Variations. They were created for the harpsichordist Johann Gottlieb Goldberg with the intention that these Variations would soothe into sleep his princely employer, the Count von Keyserlingk. SIGNUM and Kai Schumacher combine excerpts from the Goldberg Variations with the works of other night lovers in music history such as Franz Schubert and Frederic Chopin. For the Romantics, the night was the favourite habitat for melancholy, other-worldly soul excursions. By contrast, two American composers illustrate the sounds of the city that never sleeps: Steve Reich makes minimalist dream worlds pulsate in New York Counterpoint, while his compatriot George Gershwin allows his sleepless thoughts to fly over the brightly lit skyline on a rhapsodic night journey. Finally, Kai Schumacher, as a 21st century artist, includes in the mix the ecstasy produced by the sleepless nightclubs, the tireless laboratories of sound (album: “Rausch”).

 

 

Driven into this nocturnal panopticon between deepest black and brilliant colours, we meet ourselves, our fears, hopes, passions and abysses. The Night opens for us a space for reflections and fantasies, a space commonly hidden in the daylight. And the Music of Goldberg Nights is the key to unlock it! A concert programme not only for friends of classical music: exciting and calming, cool and ecstatic, dreaming and wide awake – like the night, which is designed not just for sleeping. And Johann Gottlieb Goldberg already knew that.
April 17, 2020

SAUDADE – OUR JOURNEY TO ANGOLA / MOVIE

The film follows a classical saxophone quartet to Angola, Africa and tries to capture the mysterious
and enchanting feeling called Saudade.
Members of a classical saxophone quartet travel to Angola, Africa, to carry out a workshop with
students of a local music school. Although their mission is to bring their knowledge and experience to
others, they end up leaving with important knowledge and experience themselves. The film follows
the four musicians and takes the viewer on a meditative and exploring paths through Angola
accompanied by classical and contemporary compositions.

The title of the film – SAUDADE – is a Portuguese word used to describe a vague and constant desire
for something that does not and probably cannot exist, for something other than the present.
Last year I had a chance to travel to Angola, Africa with four classical musicians, film their journey
and try capturing saudade.

April 12, 2020

DEAR FRIENDS

The challenging events around the globe, which have hit us so unexpectedly, forced us into seclusion and social isolation. These circumstances, so unfamiliar to most of us, bring a lot of confusion, uncertainty and unwanted change to everyone.
But let us not forget the reason we are all staying at home!
It is solidarity to those, who need the medical resources the most and who would not survive this crisis without it and to prevent more drastic dimensions of this global pandemic.
In the moments when we feel lonely, weak and forgotten, we should not give into these feelings and let them make us panic!
We should use them to realize, what we need most of all to survive and to stay sane in this world, is each other and the ability to tread this earth freely.
We can try and see this as a reminder of how small and connected our planet really is and how fragile the reality we have created for ourselves.
Let us not let fear be our guide, but a wish and a will to do our best to make the future better for all fellow human beings!
This is not an easy time for anyone and it neither is for us. We are not able to meet our colleagues and to do what we enjoy the most – to create music.
But we are not giving up. Let this be our small contribution for a better tomorrow.

So all together,
Vsi skupaj,
Tutti insieme,
Բոլորով միասին,
be strong and breathe in.

January 23, 2020

La Folle Journee Nantes – 14 concerts – 14 times Beethoven!

Hello to all!

It has been few days since Berlin concert.- nice memories but life goes on and we are back to work.

In the past days we were busy, preparing our Beethoven Project. The premiere of it will take place tomorrow on 24th January (20:30) at one of our favorite festivals.- Folle Journee in Nantes/ France.

The exact dates and times of the concerts you can see at our Website. – exactly where are you now 😉 – at TOUR section.

 

On the Program:

#BeBEETHOVEN
HAYDN String quartet opus 33 n°1 Hob.III.37
BEETHOVEN/LEITINGER Sonata quasi una fantasia – Adagio Sostenuto from Piano Sonata No. 14, Op. 27 No. 2*
BEETHOVEN Allegro molto, quasi presto from Quartet, op.18 No.2
NAGAO Ewig Beethoven*
*world premiere in Nantes

 

At this point we would like to mention and to thanks two persons!

Firstly to Jun Nagao who composed a piece especially for us and which is his very personal and intimate reflection on Beethoven music.

Secondly, big thanks and compliment for slovenian jazz man Izidor Leitinger who wrote his very own (jazzy) version of Beethoven’s famous Sonata! Basically a composition, not only an arrangement!

We are excited about the coming days in  France and looking forward to enjoy and to share the music of Ludwig van Beethoven!

Your, SIGNUM boys

January 17, 2020

Berlin Konzerthaus – Starry Night

Hello from Berlin!

Berlin Konzerthaus is a very special concert venue for us, because there we basically played our first “real” concert.- apart from playing at House Concerts, Picknicks and Garten Parties back to that time 😉

It was 17.3.2010 and we still remember the big excitment at the hall and of course crazy “Berlin Night” afterwards.

In beetwen we were back there for two times but it is still huge honor for us and every time like for the first time. Yesterday was it so far again.
On the programme Starry Night with Alexej Gerassimez.

We did not feel nostalgic but were just happy to see so many friends at the hall and we were overhelmed with reaction of enthusiastic audience. This night the crazy party didn’t follow as we had to take early flights back to Köln. – But anyway.- the time for it will come soon again! 🙂

Your SIGNUM boys

January 3, 2020

John Psathas: Connectome

Dear friends,
happy new year! We hope you had nice time with your families and beloved ones! We are back on track and on 4th January we will premiere the piece of John Psathas  at Festspiele Mecklenburg- Vorpommern with wonderful Alexej Gerassimez.
The concert will take place in Ulrichshusen.
Few notes from Composer about the piece:

The new piece is called CONNECTOME
(a connectome (/kəˈnɛktoʊm/) is a comprehensive map of neural connections in the brain, and may be thought of as its “wiring diagram”. More broadly, a connectome would include the mapping of all neural connections within an organism’s nervous system.

The piece is in three parts. Each part has its own title and concept, and each part represents a different idea of the kind of future we might have as a species.

Part 1 Pashupatastra
(From the Mahabharata)… he asked for the sacred and deadly weapon Pashupatastra so that neither man or god could prevail over him.  Yet Shiva warns him of Pashupatastra’s powers: Arjuna will not be able to dispose of the weapon or give it back, nor recall the horrible weapon once he wields it.  It has the power to destroy the world.

Part 2 Farewell to the Flesh
This part is a response to the increasing likelihood that we will one day make scans of the neural connections in our brains and nervous systems that are so accurate and complete, we will exist after death as immortal digital consciousness. I thought about this a lot (and have read books about it) and had so many questions;

• When I am code will I still feel emotion? If my emotions are mostly chemical reactions, with no chemicals in software, how will I ever make a choice?
• Will I still be able to laugh, or cry?
• Will I feel fear, empathy, lust, anticipation, disappointment?
• Will I believe I am experiencing touch, taste, smell, hearing?
• Will someone be able to edit me?
• What will life be like if I am no longer flesh and blood? Will it be life?
• Will I be I or will I be AI?

I believe we will all profoundly miss being physical, sensual, beings, and we will be changed into something unrecognizable by that transition. So Part Two is an elegy, a farewell to the flesh.

Part 3 Rom in Space
When we imagine space travel it’s common to think of astronauts and scientists, white space suits, and a lot of shining technology. But I started thinking much further ahead, when all of us get into space. I imagined gypsies (Rom) with the freedom to roam anywhere, and the kind of energy they (and all the rest of us) will bring to the stars. (nb – at one point in Part 3 our Rom space-traveller drops out of hyperspace for a brief romantic liaison….)

We feel truly honored and excited about premiering the piece and giving birth to a new baby! We thanks John Psathas and Festspiele Mecklenburg- Vorpommern for their kind help at commisioning the piece.

Your SIGNUM boys