Katia Beaugeais
Dr Katia Beaugeais is an Australian-French saxophonist and composer based in Sydney. She is an ABC Classic, Selmer Sax and Vandoren Paris Artist.
Since winning the prestigious International Society for Contemporary Music Young Composer Award, her music has been performed throughout Europe, UK, America, Canada, Asia, Peru and Australasia, and featured on BBC Radio 3, Radio France, Boulevard des Productions French TV, Australian Chamber Orchestra’s worldwide playlist celebrating “incredible female artists” and UK’s Women Composers’ International Global Forum.
ABC Classic recently named Beaugeais as “Australia’s most celebrated composers – but she’s first and foremost a saxophonist”. Both her solo saxophone and string orchestra music are the main theme music for ABC New Waves and ABC Classic Breakfast daily radio.
Recent ABC Classic releases include Beaugeais’ solo saxophone album, Breath by Breath, which is named after her circular breathing soprano sax piece, and ABC’s 2021, 2022 and 2023 Women of Note albums.
Beaugeais’ music has been performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, didgeridoo virtuoso William Barton, Royal Australian Navy Band, Colonel Higuchi and Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Central Band, NASA Sax Congress, Cliff Leaman’s University of South Carolina and Kyle Horch’s Royal College of Music Sax ensemble, Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra Fellows, Zagreb Biennale, Scotland, France and Croatia World Sax Congresses, and by Beaugeais herself in her own 40 min. saxophone concerto recorded by ABC Classic
CONCERT TITLE
New Australian and British Sax music by Katia Beaugeais and Adam Gorb
CONCERT PROGRAM
“Breath by Breath” for soprano sax ………………… Katia Beaugeais
“Long Distance Call” for soprano sax – World premiere...............................Adam Gorb
Opening Invocation
Alla Marcia
Andantino Siciliano
Scherzo – Presto
Aria, Slow
Passacaglia
PROGRAM NOTES
1. “Breath by Breath” (2021) for soprano saxophone – Composed by Dr Katia Beaugeais
Beaugeais’ “Breath by Breath” (2021) for solo soprano saxophone is named after her ABC Classic Solo Sax album and is ABC’s New Waves main theme tune.
Beaugeais composed “Breath by Breath” through her saxophone alone and has not yet notated the music. “Breath by Breath” explores the pure, lyrical and singing tonal colours of the soprano saxophone through the use of atmospheric contemporary playing techniques: bird-like quarter-tone trills, multiphonics, circular breathing, slap-tongue and air vibrato wind sound effects.
Beaugeais’ fascination of pushing the saxophone to its limit is showcased by endlessly flowing arpeggiated passages featuring circular breathing for seven minutes non-stop to imitate the continuous sound of a violin.
2. “Long Distance Call” (2022) for soprano saxophone – Composed by Prof. Adam Gorb
In 2020 the Australian-French saxophonist and composer Katia Beaugeais asked me to write her a work for solo saxophone. As well as the challenging distance between our homes (10,567 miles between Manchester and Sydney) the advent of the pandemic made remote communication during the creative process a total necessity! So, during the many valuable zoom sessions I would hear Katia demonstrate embryonic ideas with all the questionable sound quality that was available at the time. Happily, I was able to work with Katia in a subsequent trip she made to the UK and I think we both celebrated the joys of working face to face again!
As well as referring to the means of communication during the work’s genesis the title of the piece is also reflected in the fanfare like invocation at the start which I imagined being heard over a vast space of terrain.
Long Distance Call is in six sections:
Opening Invocation,
Alla Marcia,
Andantino Siciliano,
Scherzo – Presto,
Aria, Lento,
Passacaglia with a late return to the opening to give the work a triumphant end.
Program note by Adam Gorb.
MUSICIANS
Katia Beaugeais
CONCERT VENUE
House Museum Colon
C/ Colón, 1, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Day: Saturday, December 9.
Hora: 19:00h – 19:25h
TICKETS
Active and Listening Congress Members: free
Resto de público (venta online): 6€ (opcional: venta de entradas en taquilla del Museo Casa de Colón el día del concierto)
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