Tallinn Saxophone Quartet celebrates its jubilee with concerts in October 16 at 7 pm at Pärnu Concert Hall chamber hall, in October18 at 6 pm at Tallinn Mederi hall and October 19 at 4 pm at Tartu Vanemuise Concert all chamber hall. Soloists are Pille Lill and Marko Matvere.
The program consist music from movies and musicals. Richard Rodger’s “Edelweiss” from the Sound of Music, John Kander’s “Cabaret” from the Cabaret and theme song of New York but also settings form Andrew Lloyd Webber’s, George Gershwin’s, Raimond Valgre’s and other author´s songs.
The Tallinn Saxophone Quartet was founded by Professor Olavi Kasemaa in 1983. The players today - Olavi Kasemaa (soprano saxophone), Villu Veski (alto saxophone), Valdur Neumann (tenor saxophone) and Hendrik Nagla (baritone saxophone) have been working together since 1985. The ensemble has participated in various music festivals, and toured in Latvia, Russia, Canada, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Norway, France, Germany and Spain. In 1997, the quartet took part in the eleventh Saxophone World Congress in Valencia, Spain, and the twelfth Congress in Montreal in 2000. This unique ensemble has collaborated with orchestras such as the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Eri Klas) and the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra (conducted by Tõnu Kaljuste) as well as with vocalists (such as Tiiu Levald and Pille Lill). A number of recordings have been made for radio, but also LP´s and CD´s have been recorded. Today 24 composers have written 40 new works specially for the Tallinn Saxophone Quartet, including extended opuses with orchestra, male choir, percussions, vocal soloists and one chamber opera. The repertoire of the quartet is various, including nearly 150 different names beginning from the transcriptions of the renaissance music, and ending with jazz music.
Aveli Kadastik