Asya Fateyeva - Russian Saxophone Soloist - 13

by Barry Cockcroft | The Barry Sax Show

About Asya Fateyeva

Asya Fateyeva, a classical saxophonist born on the Crimean peninsula in 1990, has a wide repertoire which includes original works written for her instrument, as well as Baroque, Classical and Romantic pieces which she often arranges herself. In 2014 she became the first woman to reach the final of the prestigious Adolphe Sax International Competition in Belgium. As a winner of the first prize at the German Music Competition in 2012, Asya Fateyeva recorded her debut album of works by Mishat, Ibert, Albright and Decruck. For this project, she was awarded the Best Newcomer ECHO Klassik in 2016.

The daughter of a professional footballer, Asya Fateyeva began taking piano lessons at the age of six and saxophone at age 10. Later, she was taught by Professor Margarita Shaposhnikova in Moscow and took masterclasses in Gap, France. Asya moved to Germany in 2004 where she was taught by Daniel Gauthier. Study trips to France, where she was taught by Claude Delangle in Paris and Jean-Denis Michat in Lyon, provided crucial creative inspiration.

Fateyeva has performed with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, with the Tchaikovsky Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Ukrainian National Philharmonic, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, the Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra of Milan and many German orchestras.

Show Notes

  • Concerto soloist after 6 months of lessons.
  • Falling in love with the classical saxophone.
  • Adopting a family to study saxophone.
  • The Russian way of putting the music first.
  • Music and technique are not separate things.
  • Adapting your sound for chamber music.
  • Listening to yourself from an outside perspective.
  • Zooming in on problems.
  • Having confidence to perform from memory.
  • The importance of improvisation to know music more deeply.
  • Inside the laboratory of saxophone events.
  • Giving music everything.
  • The imperfection of beauty.
  • Performing in the state of concentrated calm.
  • Developing a wide range of skills, other than playing.
  • Curiosity, discovery and development.

Show Notes

Transcript of Podcast Interview with Asya Fateyeva

Please enjoy the transcript of this podcast episode. With thousands of words in each episode it might contain a few typos and may also have been edited for clarity.

Barry Cockcroft: 02:03 I think sometimes when I see you, I’m a bit confused about your nationality. You speak many languages, you’re comfortable in different environments. So what are your origins?

Asya Fateyeva: 02:15 My origins are Russian. I’m coming from Crimea, the Russian part. My mother language is Russian. So I feel Russian, but not really. I don’t really know where is my home place. It’s a bit everywhere because half of my life I spent in Germany. I went to school there, I have a German passport, but also I was living three years in France, so I think home is now Germany. But I am still speaking Russian at home because my husband is also Russian speaking, my parents are also not far, so it’s a mixture.

Barry Cockcroft: 02:49 And so what age did you move to Germany?

Asya Fateyeva: 02:52 I was 14 years old. We moved with all my family, because it was already difficult situation in Crimea. Politically it was unstable and for the future of their children because I also have my sister, my parents decided to go there, so we moved with the whole family.

Barry Cockcroft: 03:07 So with no accessible saxophone teacher, then you’re able to…

Asya Fateyeva: 03:14 Exactly. We chose, let’s say my parents chose the wrong city, Hambuirg in that time because there was no saxophone, but my grandparents were also there so they went more there for family. That’s why Cologne, which is four hours away was the next possibility to study good saxophone.

Barry Cockcroft: 03:29 Why didn’t your family moved to Cologne as well if it was just a few hours away?

Asya Fateyeva: 03:34 Good question. I never asked myself that. I think because the grandparents, the parents of my father were already in Hamburg, so they decided to stay there and they wouldn’t move the whole family because of me, it would be a bit too complicated. I was 15, still young, but it’s already possible to almost live alone.

Barry Cockcroft: 03:54 And so you got to live and learn with your teacher?

Asya Fateyeva: 03:59 Yes. They really had to adopt me officially because of German rules so they are really my adoptive parents. I asked Claude Delangle who he would recommend in Germany to go to study with and he suggested Daniel Gauthier who I contacted. We went even with my parents to him, I was 15 back then and he was so nice and adorable and he helped me a lot. It was amazing, really very kind of them. Now that I also teach and it’s amazing that what they did for me for sure.

Barry Cockcroft: 04:28 Do you think the way that you learned saxophone with Daniel was influenced by the fact that you also had to have a family relationship?

Asya Fateyeva: 04:38 Actually, yeah, if I think back then I’m not sure. Because the lessons were I think still in conservatory, in Cologne, not at home. It was also once a week, like a normal. I don’t know how, if it was mixing a lot there. Was this private or not private? I don’t think so, no.

Barry Cockcroft: 04:59 I’ve interviewed Daniel of course on this show and I’ve known him for a long time and I’ve always admired his approach. I guess one way to put it would be to put melody first. He’s very expressive and I always admired that about his playing. Is that something that you adopted from him as well in his teaching – a focus on the musical side of playing?

Asya Fateyeva: 05:24 I think in my case it came earlier. It came from Russia for sure. It came from the single most important step in my education was when I was 12 and I went to Moscow to Margarita Shaposhnikova and it really put something in me – how you treat music. Even earlier when I played piano at six, I also had a very good teacher and the way they take care of music, the way they take responsibility for music, for the composer, it’s really something special, so I think I got it more from the Russian side.

Barry Cockcroft: 06:02 How do you balance taking care of music but also developing significant technique at the same time?

Asya Fateyeva: 06:10 It’s an interesting question because few days ago I was decided discussing this with one of the saxophonists from the congress. It’s weird to make these separate. It’s not possible to say here’s music, here’s technique and then let’s combine, it’s not possible. So there is no technique without music. Technique is from music and if you have some desires to express or to play something so of course you need technique. It’s like trying to speak without words. Let’s say we learn letters and then we learn sentences. When we speak we don’t separate the sense of sentence and words. It’s the same in music, so I’m trying not to separate technique. It’s very, very important and of course you have to have it, but the higher goal is of course to express something – that’s the highest call.

Barry Cockcroft: 06:55 Sure. So you can’t put the technical aspect first?

Asya Fateyeva: 07:00 No, no, no, I don’t think so.

Barry Cockcroft: 07:03 You spent some time with Daniel and where did you go next?

Asya Fateyeva: 07:08 Next, because I started with 15 with him [Daniel Gauthier], so it was already quite a long time studying so at 17 I decided to study for my bachelors. Back then it was diploma, a different system to now. I first was on exchange with Claude Delangle for half a year in CNSM in Paris which was very nice. Then I went to Montpelier, France for one year with Philippe Braquart, which was also very cool. I Especially loved this sunny city.

Barry Cockcroft: 07:33 I lived there for six months, just on holiday. It’s beautiful.

Asya Fateyeva: 07:37 Even during my studies I had that holiday feeling  – absolutely. It reminds me of Crimea because we have a lot of sun, we have a really similar nature. When I came to Germany, there was no sun, it was grey, it was hard for me, so I was really feeling great and at home. After that I went for three years to Jean-Denis Michat in Lyon, France. It was my end station and it really was very, very important for me. Of course I knew him from the Gap masterclass when I was 12 or 13. I knew all the teachers already before Germany. So for me it was always kind of family.

Barry Cockcroft: 08:14 But he didn’t have to adopt you?

Asya Fateyeva: 08:16 No! And I’m sure he wouldn’t. He would not, that’s for sure.

Barry Cockcroft: 08:18 It’s funny because the first time I heard you play live was at the Dinant competition in 2014 and you played a piece by Jean-Denis and in the finals of the competition his concerto – Shams. That must be a very nice connection to have learned with somebody and then you’re playing their music.

Asya Fateyeva: 08:42 Absolutely. I really loved it because to work with the composers, it’s so interesting, especially if it’s your teacher, a composer, and you play his music. The whole class was influenced like a virus, let’s say we had a virus of this music, so everybody was playing it and it was an interesting time.

Barry Cockcroft: 08:59 He must have been a supportive teacher because I remember he came to that concert. How would you describe perhaps the differences between the four teachers you’ve described so far? What differences did you see in style and learning?

Asya Fateyeva: 09:17 It’s hard to compare. I don’t like it and I wouldn’t do it. I think the teacher should really fit to you. They should be really on the same wavelength. It’s very personal for everyone. Maybe also the period of your life is also important. What you need right there in that time. And I really loved my time in Lyon because it was something special. It was a good mixture that remind me a bit of Russia because Jean-Denis, he admires Russia and Russian culture. But at the same time very precise as a French side and it was something else on another level as a composer. So for me it was something really special.

Barry Cockcroft: 09:53 Do you find in your own teaching now that you take some of the aspects from the range of teachers you’ve had or have you found a new way to teach?

Asya Fateyeva: 10:02 I’m sure I’m taking what I got from my teachers, that’s for sure. I didn’t observe myself from outside, but for sure, yes. I really like also the book of Jean-Denis – Contemporary Saxophone. It’s only in French I guess for now. I would love to translate it into German, because we are missing stuff in German language. I’m sure I got a lot of influence from this French side. In the way of explaining saxophone, explaining how to play, but for sure it’s combined with Daniel’s side of playing with some beautiful sound that he is looking for. The most important word I think of Daniel’s teaching was homogene [homogeneous]. He got it from Londeix I guess. So it was very important for him that all the register sound the same. So he could not stand it if there was some ‘buzz’ in the middle register and I think sometimes we hear some pro players even from France who don’t care about it as much as he does. So it’s important to combine things that you think are good and that’s why the way that I teach and the way that I play is maybe a combination of all the things. It’s up to my taste at the end.

Barry Cockcroft: 11:09 You know, people describe Daniel as the `French school and Daniel said to me that he’s pretty sure that the French would not consider him to be French school.

Asya Fateyeva: 11:19 It’s bit different. Sure, he’s French school because from is from Londeix but if we go so deep in the French school then there are Bichon and Londeix.

Barry Cockcroft: 11:26 Do you think there are schools of different ways of playing in different parts of the world?

Asya Fateyeva: 11:34 I think it’s getting less and less. It’s getting more mixed maybe because of globalisation, because we get influenced, because we travel more. I don’t know why, but I still think if you come to every country there is some influence. There is some specialty of sound, of the way of playing. Not only in saxophone. I also noticed that when I am in France I adapt my sound a bit to the way that is suitable for another instrument. Then again in Germany and let’s say in America, but I didn’t have big experience in America yet, it would be different, and England as well. I think we adapt for sure.

Barry Cockcroft: 12:10 Some people would refuse to adapt and I will just say this is how I play it. Like it don’t like it. So is adapting something that’s useful when you’re playing in chamber music?

Asya Fateyeva: 12:22 Maybe that’s what I would say for sure. For my case I can speak only from my side. It happening automatically. If you’re communicating with other musicians, with the way strings play or the woodwind or brass. You try to achieve some harmony together in some concertos or in chamber music. So you really try to find a way that suits. That’s why in Vienna also, they have some kind of, not in saxophone let’s say, but special instruments as it keeps us tradition and it keeps a special sound. It has something. Maybe not as much as they I am trying to say, but still.

Barry Cockcroft: 12:56 So I guess the next extension of that is if you are working as soloist, which sound do you choose because you are out the front. Do you really feel that you can be yourself, you’re not adapting or are you always…

Asya Fateyeva: 13:14 Oh no, no, no, myself, 200 percent for sure. But it also can easily depend on the hall for example, the acoustic. My biggest advice and my discovery, but it’s not new, would be try to listen to yourself from the outside. It’s so important when you play to listen to yourself. Really from the acoustic perspective, in a space. It’s the biggest thing. If you are capable and you’re trying to do it, then you improve or you choose the way you want to do it.

Barry Cockcroft: 13:46 Most people practice in a very small room, so does that stop that ability to listen back to the sound?

Asya Fateyeva: 13:55 Maybe. It’s healthy sometimes to play a big hall in real acoustic just to change – it’s good. I don’t think a small room is a problem, but not forever. Not always. It’s a bit like singers. I think we have to play and to trust or to imagine how to develop in a space so we we can really hear 100 percent what’s happening. But we have to maybe try to develop some skills or some reflexes and to know that this works and there is imagination and trust.

Barry Cockcroft: 14:31 You keep talking about adapting. It makes me wonder if you are working to a plan or are you more just sort of making up your career as things happen?

Asya Fateyeva: 14:42 I think the second one. Everybody has some goals, sure. Some big goals, yes, but then it’s happening.

Barry Cockcroft: 14:51 Is the way that you practice now different to the way that you practiced when you were a student?

Asya Fateyeva: 14:58 Yes, I guess yes. It took some time to get into it again to practice, it’s important to practice now. Last year was a bit crazy with all these travels. It was really hard to combine so the professional life is not sometimes as we imagine it as a student where we will have eight hours of practicing, play for few concerts have one exam, and that’s it. Not at all. There is a hard reality or nice reality. You have to teach, you have to travel, you have to do this and that and there are so many things. So you have really to first to find time and clear your head. To be efficient would be helpful. In a short time to do your best.

Barry Cockcroft: 15:38 So is efficiency in practice something that you learned from your teachers or you\ developed through experimenting?

Asya Fateyeva: 15:44 I guess I would develop it more. I guess myself.

Barry Cockcroft: 15:48 Could you describe efficiency?

Asya Fateyeva: 15:52 Oh, I think it’s very hard. It’s very personal as well. Try to find the real places you need to work on and improve these places. To zoom in on a problem, not to try to play only the zoomed problmems, but to solve problems, and then of course if you need to adapt and develop your interpretation it is something else. You have to play more. There are different sides of problems to solve.

Barry Cockcroft: 16:15 I have noticed that a lot of students when they practice, they practice the parts they can play and ignore the parts they can’t play until the end. Hoping that will magically learn themselves and then of course they don’t work. I think one of the joys of practice of course is playing music that sounds good and that you can play. If you’re always playing things that don’t work, then maybe that’s a little bit depressing. So maybe that’s why people are drawn to at least working on some things that are already okay, but it uses up a lot of time for.

Asya Fateyeva: 16:51 Sure, but I think to combine both is good. Of course to only practice small things is not a good way. To clean, let’s say. Okay, now I take one hour, I’ll clean stuff, so clean all the small things intonation and okay, now I’m free to play.

Barry Cockcroft: 17:05 Is memorisation an important part of your work?

Asya Fateyeva: 17:08 Yes. Actually, yes. But I must say that I got a bit lazy in Germany. Because the Russian was that we were playing everything by heart. I was also very surprised. I was at masterclasses in Portugal and first of all, they have a great system before the conservatory with special schools. There are children who are focused already music and they had to play everything by heart so that all exams are by heart. It’s great to do it often when you are young because in Germany is was a problem where people had students had never ever did it. So of course it’s a bit hard to start and also to find confidence to do it for the first time. It’s better to start early. In Russia it’s just a tradition. We did it when we were small and you had to. There was no choice not to do it. In Europe it’s easy, everywhere you can play with music, so I got lazy.

Barry Cockcroft: 17:59 Is improvisation something that forms part of your music?

Asya Fateyeva: 18:03 A very nice questions. It got important for me, let’s say in the last year. I’m really trying to integrate it also for my students. I think it’s very important for musicians. What I see sometimes in classical saxophone players, sometimes or maybe it’s just my case, I was in the beginning against jazz. I was like, no, no, no, it’s done beautiful . I only like classical, towards really the maximalism and very stupid because I was young. Now I have discovered it’s really great for me and I am really trying to observe as much as I can and but there is another side of improvisation that doesn’t have to be jazz. There is free, there is anything, so maybe there is not a good name for it, but to play freely or to play what you want or in different styles, it’s very, very important. To get rid of the music and to be only right and make no mistakes. It’s not about music and that’s why I think that it’s very, very important for us, for players. This year for my students, I organized a class with a Markus Stockhausen. It was really great because he did the intuitive music, improvisation. I really loved it. The students in the beginning, they go used to it and then we’ve given some kind of an end concert. It’s important and I don’t know if they want to continue or not. The students, it should also respond in you. Maybe 10 years later they’ll say, oh, it was a good thing. I should try. Maybe not immediately. It isn’t the right time for everyone, but yes, it’s very, very important for me now.

Barry Cockcroft: 19:30 I think if you can improvise, it means you’re making choices all the time. Everything you do, you have to choose everything and then when you get back to music that’s written, hopefully you still know how to make choices and so therefore you’re your interpretation should become better because you can more choose things. If you are used to just following one way of playing and you don’t know how to change because you can’t choose anything else, I think that’s a shame. But if you can improvise, just anything, then hopefully you can also improvise the smaller things. Maybe changing the dynamics or changing the phrasing on the spot.

Asya Fateyeva: 20:13 Sure, sure. I just cannot say that I wasn’t as free in my music before, because I wasn’t improvising all. I think the reason was for me was the strict Russian school, that said either you do this, wither you do that. There was no combination possible. That’s why I really grew up in different system and it’s changed. Of course, we were looking for interpretation of the phrase. We could play a phrase differently, also dynamic interpretation but not improvising. So of course it’s enrichment for sure. And I think it’s very important also to try to understand the composer and if you imrprovise as you said very nicely that you make choices, but also you’re kind of composing in a way. Very simple of course in my case, but at least you’re in touch with something creative. So then when you play you can say, ah, it was the composers decision. So maybe it helps you also to come to the idea of composition better.

Barry Cockcroft: 21:12 Is working with composers and important part of your music making?

Asya Fateyeva: 21:16 Yes, absolutely. I like it so much and it helps me to grow, let’s say, because sometimes composers, they make me discover my instrument in a way I wouldn’t think of as a player. Let’s try this, let’s try that. Or we develop something together. There is a freshness, there is really a different state of mind or point of view. So it’s great. It keeps it fresh.

Barry Cockcroft: 21:41 Do you find there’s something about new music that, let’s say you have a new piece, is it something in a piece of music that would make you choose to play it again? And are there pieces that you might say, thank you that that was good to play once and I’ll leave that now for somebody else. Is there some quality that means you want to keep playing a piece?

Asya Fateyeva: 22:03 Yes, for sure. Maybe I cannot describe it, but as a musician you feel it. I think there is some music that gives you something back or there is some music that makes you even higher and gives really great feelings. There is some music that you have to force yourself. Sometimes it happens you don’t want to play a piece to it. You don’t understand it, so you don’t want to work on it. But when you get into it, it’s getting more and more interesting. So you find some things and then you grow with a piece. Every concert, it’s better or you discover something. I think every piece has its own story. Sometimes it is a great piece, but you’ve played it so many times that you need rest otherwise it’s really getting boring for you and bad for the piece.

Barry Cockcroft: 22:47 Is working as a soloist in front of an orchestra something that you love?

Asya Fateyeva: 22:51 Yes. It’s very natural for me, somehow. I also did this when I was young at age nine or ten in Ukraine. I had been playing saxophone for just six months and had already played with orchestra. Yes, I like it very much.

Barry Cockcroft: 23:06 You’re comfortable. What is it?

Asya Fateyeva: 23:13 A feeling of home. It’s nothing. I don’t know.

Barry Cockcroft: 23:15 Is this something that you want to keep developing – this type of performance where you’re the soloist.

Asya Fateyeva: 23:22 I think it’s a combination. It’s always a combination. It’s not that I only play with orchestra, I also play chamber music. I think for me, I like the variety, so I like to have different things. It’s really important.

Barry Cockcroft: 23:36 Do you find that the saxophone sometimes is a little bit academic? To give you an example, saxophone players playing new music for an audience of saxophone players as opposed to saxophone players playing music for a general audience.

Asya Fateyeva: 23:53 I can understand why because, at least as is the case in Germany, sometimes it’s very hard to make organizers believe in some name that they have never heard. So we are really forced to face some names that they know because it’s a risk for the public to take a name they don’t know, so maybe the people do not come. They’re always afraid. It’s getting harder with culture actually nowadays, so they don’t dare, let’s say. If you want to really play some pieces where else. Of course there are some new music festivals which is great, but you had to play it before the colleagues are here [at the World Saxophone Congress] where you can do whatever you want and you can develop. It’s like liberty and it’s good. Of course it’s not the real world, let’s say. It’s a bit like a laboratory world. We meet, we exchange and then I think the task is also to spread it around, but in a good dosage. It’s good.

Barry Cockcroft: 24:50 Now I’ve got some quick questions. It doesn’t mean they’re easy questions but they are quick short questions. Is there something that you believe that other people disagree with?

Asya Fateyeva: 25:01 For sure because taste is different. Sure.

Barry Cockcroft: 25:04 But I mean in music in general.

Asya Fateyeva: 25:07 Yes, there are.

Barry Cockcroft: 25:09 Can you give an example?

Asya Fateyeva: 25:11 Because taste is different, maybe for some people there are the aspects that are more important for me and less important for them and the opposite’s true. They’re opposites.

Barry Cockcroft: 25:22 Do you think it’s difficult to sometimes do something differently to what other people do or is that silly.

Asya Fateyeva: 25:31 No, no. I think it’s difficult to copy – to do the same.

Barry Cockcroft: 25:39 If you just had one piece of music that you could play now for the rest of your life, what do you think that would be?

Asya Fateyeva: 25:45 Still Albright, I guess.

Barry Cockcroft: 25:46 Really? You love this? What is it about this piece that you’re drawn to?

Asya Fateyeva: 25:51 It’s everything; the range of emotions, also this deepness, this difference inside, tragedy, this way of writing. But I need to take a rest from this piece because it’s getting boring for both of us.

Barry Cockcroft: 26:11 If you just had one hour to practice, how would you spend that hour?

Asya Fateyeva: 26:16 Playing beautiful melodies.

Barry Cockcroft: 26:19 I’m glad you didn’t say playing long notes.

Asya Fateyeva: 26:22 No. [‘Laughter]

Barry Cockcroft: 26:24 Who would you consider to be one of the most successful contributors to the world of saxophone?

Asya Fateyeva: 26:31 Oh, that’s a mean question. Marcel Mule because he had many, many good qualities. First of all, he was accepted as a musician throughout the whole world and he developed a great class and his influence is huge.

Barry Cockcroft: 26:47 If we learn from our mistakes, is it okay to make mistakes?

Asya Fateyeva: 26:51 Yes, sure, sure. It’s life. It’s our way.

Barry Cockcroft: 26:56 If you make a mistake – maybe one day you’ll make a mistake – do you cope well? Are you okay if you make a mistake in performance?

Asya Fateyeva: 27:05 Yes, too well!

Barry Cockcroft: 27:07 You don’t even notice. That’s good. Some people get a bit stuck and they can’t stop thinking about that.

Asya Fateyeva: 27:14 I wouldn’t fit, for example, as an orchestral musician, I’m not really the type. So let’s say that I notice and it really isn’t a problem.

Barry Cockcroft: 27:23 Would you have a suggestion to people how they can let mistakes go?

Asya Fateyeva: 27:30 Yes. I heard this very nice sentence from Gordan Tudor. I like him really very much. He is a very interesting human and saxophone player sure and composer. I think he’s saying to his students that it’s not surgery, nobody will die and he’s right. I think it’s really healthy.

Barry Cockcroft: 27:48 I do think sometimes we take saxophnone so seriously, but actually it’s not very serious. It’s music and it’s not life or death.

Asya Fateyeva: 27:57 From one side, yes, from another side you should give everything you can and if you do it seriously in a way that it’s very important for you and you give it everything. It’s not about mistakes, it’s about something else. And if you’re really saying something with a saxophone, even with mistakes, it’s no problem. It is a beauty that’s not perfect.

Barry Cockcroft: 28:21 So what’s the thing that you do right before a performance, walking on to stage? What do you do to prepare yourself so that you’re in the best frame of mind to play at your best?

Asya Fateyeva: 28:31 It also depends on the situation. Just to calm down with the mind and concentrate. Calm but concentrated.

Barry Cockcroft: 28:38 Does it take much time to reach that state of mind?

Asya Fateyeva: 28:42 Depends of the day really. It depends on the day, sometimes it doesn’t happen.

Barry Cockcroft: 28:47 Could you give yourself a piece of advice when you are starting, let’s say you had finished your studies?

Asya Fateyeva: 28:53 Yes. Develop a very big range of skills as a musician. It’s not only playing, I was a bit serious, it was so stupid. I said, I don’t need any diplomas, even. I want just to play, nobody will ask for a diploma on stage. Of course not, but also different skills in a way of being able to organize, to arrange to anything; compose, improvise some different kinds of music. I was pretty stubborn and also it how I was guided like this competition stuff and I didn’t have really much freedom. Then I needed some time to like a teenager, not break down – I want to try it and want something else – I don’t want to this. So except yourself as a free person and not only a machine to practise. Stay alive, enjoy life.

Barry Cockcroft: 29:44 Is that something you’ve been working on recently that you would like to share with everybody?

Asya Fateyeva: 29:50 Last week, recorded a CD. That was my next CD. It will come in February, 2019. It is very colorful in the way that it’s mixed. It’s not only for saxophone public so it might be a bit light for saxophone public, but the special guests is Arno Bornkamp and we are playing also light music, in a way. He thought that it might be interesting. It’s a student of Adolphe Sax but he made some easy transcriptions of The Troubadour by Verdi and some more duos. My goal was, because I live in Germany, I see now how it works. People don’t know about the saxophone. I have to explain that it’s not jazz. I have to explain that it’s not from America. It’s really ridiculous for some saxophone players. I think it was important to do this step to show them that the saxophone was born in the middle of the 19th century in France, so I chose or less from there. There is the beauty of the instrument so they can be familiar with it because in Germany a with the problem of degenerative music. You don’t note it directly, but they they think the saxophone is something horrible, loud and jazzy and bad in the symphony orchestra. There are traditions and there is this historical propaganda at work still. So there is a work to do in] this way to make them friends with our instrument.

Barry Cockcroft: 31:09 So would you describe that perhaps as your mission to get the saxophone accepted the same as other instruments?

Asya Fateyeva: 31:15 Maybe. I really take it seriously and I am really doing my best because I fell in love with classical saxophone when I was 12 or 13 in Gap when I experienced these great players playing great music, even transcriptions, but still beautiful. That’s why I want to share this beauty for sure.

Barry Cockcroft: 31:30 Where’s the best place for people to find more out about you?

Asya Fateyeva: 31:37 About me? I don’t know. I must say I’m not active in any Instagram, Twitter stuff. Sometimes I post something but not consequential. I have a website but I have to update. Maybe Facebook official page, maybe, but I’m not very good at it.

Barry Cockcroft: 31:58 And finally you have already have done so much for so long. What do you see for yourself in the next 10 or 20 years?

Asya Fateyeva: 32:09 I just go on, develop in all these ways. There are different directions and just develop it more and discover. I’m pretty curious as a type, so discover more things. Sometimes I need more time. Maybe it’s good not to teach, but just discover more things for yourself.

Barry Cockcroft: 32:27 One last thing. Thank you very much for your time today and enjoy the rest of the congress.

Asya Fateyeva: 32:33 Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me.

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