27 OCTOBER 2019

YÜKSEL KOPTAGEL - TURKEY

BORN 27 OCTOBER

Yüksel Koptagel (born 27 October 1931) is a Turkish composer and pianist. She was born in Istanbul, Turkey, granddaughter of General Osman Nuri Koptagel, a commander in the Turkish War of Independence. Her maternal great grandfather Abdul Karim Khan Tareen, a physician, had migrated from Multan (then in undivided India, now Pakistan) and had settled in Istanbul, adopting the name Abdul Karim Bey.

Koptagel studied music with the composer and conductor Cemal Resit Rey and later with Alexander Tansman, José Cubiles, Tony Aubin, Joaquin Rodrigo, and Lazare Levy in Paris and Madrid. After completing her studies, Koptagel took a position with the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and worked as a pianist and composer.

In the 1960s (during the regime of Ayub Khan Tareen (no relation)) she visited Multan to trace her maternal roots and met the descendants of siblings of Abdul Karim Tareen.

Selected works include: Quand nous nous sommes séparés (André Viaud after George Gordon Noel Byron, Lord Byron); Pastorale piano solo; Impression de Minorque piano solo; Epitafio de un muchacho muerto en abril for piano and others.

Source: Wikipedia, and Encyclopedia

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Deux chansons du pêcheur japonais by Yüksel Koptagel

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MISSY MAZZOLI  - USA
BORN 27 OCTOBER

Missy Mazzoli (born October 27, 1980) is an American composer and pianist who is a member of the composition faculty at the Mannes College of Music. She has received critical acclaim for her chamber, orchestral and operatic work. In 2018 she became one of the first two women to receive a commission from the Metropolitan Opera House. 

She is the founder and keyboardist for Victoire, an electro-acoustic band dedicated to performing her music. From 2012-2015 she was composer-in-residence at the Opera Company of Philadelphia, in collaboration with Gotham Chamber Opera and Music-Theater Group. Her music is published by G. Schirmer. Mazzoli received a 2015 Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award, a Fulbright Grant to the Netherlands, and in 2018 was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Classical Composition. In 2018, Mazzoli was named for a two-season term as the Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Mazzoli has released three full-length albums of her music to date: Cathedral City, written for her band Victoire (2010), Song from the Uproar, the original cast recording of her first opera (2012), and Vespers for a New Dark Age (2015), a work for her band Victoire in collaboration with percussionist Glenn Kotche (of Wilco) and vocalists Martha Cluver, Melissa Hughes and Virginia Kelsey.

Mazzoli was described by The New York Times as "one of the more consistently inventive and surprising composers now working in New York", and by Time Out New York as "Brooklyn's post-millennial Mozart". On November 23, 2012 and March 28, 2015, Mazzoli was a guest on NPR's All Things Considered.

Source: Wikipedia and Missy Mazzoli Official Website

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Fraction Quartet by Missy Mazzoli

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