Kenneth Tse and Arno Bornkamp (saxophones) and Casey Dierlam Tse (piano) Recital

Widely recognized as one of the world’s leading classical saxophonists, Kenneth Tse is certainly one of the instrument’s outstanding proponents on any saxophone aficionado’s short list. He burst on the scene in 1996 as the winner of the prestigious New York Artists International Award, which resulted in an acclaimed debut recital at Carnegie Hall, after which he was hailed as “a young virtuoso” by the New York Times. The Alex Award from the National Alliance for Excellence led to another Carnegie Hall performance. These are but two of the multitude of awards that Tse has garnered in less than a decade and a half. Since then he has been a frequent soloist on five continents, including solo appearances with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Des Moines Symphony, United States Navy Band, Slovenia Army Band, La Armónica Band of Bunol, Spain, Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra and Hong Kong Sinfonietta among others. He is frequent featured artist at events such as the triennial World Saxophone Congress and North American Saxophone Alliance conferences. He has also been a guest clinician at conferences hosted by the California Band Directors’ Association, Iowa Bandmaster’s Association, and the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinics. Prestigious universities and conservatories worldwide, such as Sydney Conservatory, Moscow Conservatory and Paris Conservatory have invited him to give master classes.  He was recently a judge, representing the USA, at the 6th Adolphe Sax International Competition in Dinant, Belgium.

Tse has been an active recording artist since his first CD for Crystal Records at age 23. His discography now includes a total of seven Crystal CDs—presenting a wide variety of saxophone repertoire, most of it new, some with assisting artists—as well as twelve other releases and more in process on RIAX records, Jeanné records, Enharmonic records, Arizona University Recordings and MSR Classics. Critical review of these disks have yielded such comments from Fanfare Magazine as “Hong Kong-born Kenneth Tse is of the caliber of instrumentalists whose very sound is captivating,” and in American Record Guide, “supremely elegant tone…sheer virtuosity.” Saxophone Journal opined, “Kenneth Tse is a phenomenal saxophonist with incredible technical and interpretive skills. His tone is absolutely lovely. His fingers are precise and rapid. His interpretive skills are excellent having the ability to create vast aural fantasies in the listeners’ musical soul. The true magic of music is to take a series of ink blots on a piece of paper and turn them into temporal living entities that almost live and breathe. And…Kenneth Tse is the ‘master magician’.”

As an advocate for new music, Tse has had more than thirty works dedicated to him by notable American composers such as David DeBoor Canfield, John Cheetham, Andrea Clearfield, David Froom, Perry Goldstein, Greg Fritze, Walter Hartley, as well as Victoriano Valencia of Colombia, Guy Lacour of France, Barry Cockcroft of Australia and Piet Swerts of Belgium. Tse has recorded and premiered many of these concertos, sonatas, solo works and chamber pieces. His arrangements for the saxophone are published by Reed Music, Australia, and his articles and interviews have been featured in the Saxophone Journal, The Instrumentalist, Fanfare Magazine, Saxophone Symposium, Iowa Bandmaster Association Journal, Japan’s Piper and The Sax Magazines, and Yamaha Education Series. Kenneth Tse has received numerous awards and grants including the prestigious Hong Kong Jockey Club scholarship, New York Music Performance Trust Fund, Indiana University Marcel Mule Scholarship, University of Iowa CD Subvention Fund, Arts and Humanities Initiative Grant, Barlow Commission Fund, as well as an honorary life membership from the Contemporary Record Society.

In 2009, desiring to give back to his home city, Hong Kong, Tse created the first Hong Kong International Saxophone Symposium which attracted over 70 saxophonists from around the world to join the event.  In addition to Tse, Eugene Rousseau from U. of Minnesota and Claude Delange from Paris Conservatory were the faculty members to 12 active participants from three continents.  With the tremendous success of the premiere event, Tse has formed the Hong Kong International Saxophone Society as part of an effort to facilitate more interest in saxophone performance as well as to continue hosting the symposium every two years to expose Asian saxophonists to world-class saxophone performers and teachers.

Tse’s students have garnered high recognition through competitions and recordings as well as concert appearances.  During the 2010 North American Saxophone Alliance National Competitions, Tse’s students from University of Iowa won three of the top four awards in the conference’s classical competitions (in both solo and chamber music categories), a first in the history of the conference.  Recent highlights include: winner of 2012 Music Teacher National Association National Solo Competition, winners of 2010 and 2012 North American Saxophone Alliance National Solo Competition, semi-finalist of 5th International Adolphe Sax Competition, Silver Medalist in the 2010 Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition, winner of 2010 MTNA National Chamber Music Competition, and winner of 2009 Eastern Connecticut Symphony Instrumental Competition among others.

Tse is currently Professor of Saxophone at the University of Iowa in the United States He is the first saxophonist to have hold the presidency in both North American Saxophone Alliance and the International Saxophone Committee concurrently. More information and media clips are available at www.kenneth-tse.com.

Classical saxophonist Arno Bornkamp is a unique figure in both the saxophone world and the Classical music world in general. In his career, now spanning nearly 40 years, he has amazed the music world of his energetic and stylish interpretations, full of lyricism and passion. He believes in the saxophone as an instrument with an infinite amount of nuance and colors, reflecting the human soul with all its shadings of light and dark. Bornkamp is a natural storyteller on his instrument, and offers a highly personal take in his interpretations of all the music he plays.

Arno Bornkamp’s saxophone style is strongly rooted in the 20th century French tradition: his primary teachers were, in addition to Ed Bogaard, the French saxophone legends Daniël Deffayet and Jean-Marie Londeix. Nonetheless, he was primarily influenced by the Dutch musical climate of the 1980s, a time when traditions were overthrown, dogmas were broken and classical music reached a huge audience. Bornkamp flourished greatly in this cultural climate, and together with Johan van der Linden, André Arends and Willem van Merwijk, he founded the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet (1982-2017). For a long period this quartet was one of the world’s greatest. One of their merits was opening the doors to make string quartet literature accessible to the saxophone quartet, such as the quartets by Debussy and Ravel, which they usually performed without sheet music. The Aurelia Quartet, later with Niels Bijl, Femke IJlstra and Juan Manuel Dominguez, has left a true legacy, which still serves as a source of inspiration for young quartets.

Also noteworthy is Bornkamp’s long collaboration with pianist Ivo Janssen. Janssen, himself a gifted soloist, was the perfect musical foil for Bornkamp. Their interpretations of original repertoire and arrangements, many of which have been released on CD, are still considered exemplary. More recently, Bornkamp has started working with younger musicians: the Voyager Trio with cellist Pamela Smits and pianist Tobias Borsboom, the Duo Calvadoré with the Flemish pianist Jan Lust, and the Pannonica Saxophone Quartet, which specializes in playing Argentine Tango.

His infectious way of making music makes Arno Bornkamp the ideal soloist. He has given more than 200 performances as soloist with orchestra, wherein he collaborated with conductors such as Hans Vonk, Jac van Steen, Lucas Vis, Thierry Fischer, Bernhard Klee, Jean-Bernard Pommier, Andrey Boreyko, Pierre-André Valade and others. His repertoire spans from the standard repertoire for saxophone to new, often commissioned concertos. The ‘Tallahatchie Concerto’ by Jacob ter Veldhuis ranks highly in the latter category, with Bornkamp giving many performances around the world. Quite recently, in July 2018, he gave the premiere of ‘Leyendas’ by Guillermo Lago (pseudonym of Willem van Merwijk), which was warmly received by the audience during the performance of the XVIII World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb.

For approximately 25 years, orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Residentie Orkest, Holland Symfonia, and various radio orchestras have used Bornkamp’s services as a substitute player, giving him the privilege of performing orchestral repertoire under such greats as Carlo-Maria Giulini, Ricardo Chailly, Mariss Jansons, Daniele Gatti, Mstislav Rostropowitsch, Heinz Holliger and Bernard Haitink. Bornkamp very much loves the tradition of the saxophone. He has built up a small collection of historical instruments, which enable him to perform older repertoire in an historically informed way, in both solo projects and also with the Flemish orchestra Anima Eterna. However, he has a particular fondness for new music: In total, Bornkamp has collaborated on more than 150 premieres, both as a soloist and chamber musician. Initially inspired by leading composers such as Luciano Berio and Karlheinz Stockhausen, he later built deep, long-term, and productive musical relationships with composers such as Ryo Noda, Christian Lauba, Guillermo Lago, Santiago Baez and Jacob ter Veldhuis, frequently performing many of their works.

Arno Bornkamp finds it essential to pass on his know-how to new generations of musicians, teaching at the Conservatory of Amsterdam where many of his students put his ideas into practice. He is also regularly invited to give master classes all over the world.

Arno Bornkamp has released dozens of CDs under his own name, with the Aurelia Quartet, and in the context of other projects. His latest CD project is a solo CD with music by Johan Sebastian Bach, which will be released by the German label Genuin in February 2020.

An avid performer of contemporary music, Casey Gene Dierlam Tse devotes herself in promoting new music. She has won several prizes in international competitions, including first prize at the Rose Petroff College Piano Competition held in San Antonio, TX, finalist at the St. Louis Artist Presentation Society Competition, alternate for the New Orleans International Piano Competition and Honorable Mention in the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition in New York City.

Besides her solo career, Casey is also an active collaborative artist.  She has been a coordinator for staff pianists for North American Saxophone Alliance conferences and competitions. She has collaborated with many internationally renowned saxophonists: Claude Delangle, Branford Marsalis, Debra Richtmeyer, Kenneth Tse, McChrystal , Julie Nolan, et. al.. She was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Notre Dame and currently serves as a piano instructor and accompanist at Knox College.