Golden Horn Releases Troubadour
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
29 September 2004
GOLDEN HORN RELEASES MESUT OZGEN’S FIRST SOLO RECORDING, TROUBADOUR
Mesut Özgen came to the attention of the world music community in
1989 when he performed at the International Paco Peña Guitar festival
in Cordoba, Spain. Özgen began teaching himself guitar in 1981 while
in medical school – and by 1993 had become the first guitarist to
win the Dean’s Prize at Yale University. Özgen is widely known
for creating new contexts for classical guitar performances. “Pick
and Roll,” a performance composed by Benajmin Verdery and staged
by Özgen, featured a basketball player in dialogue with a guitar
ensemble and utilized spatial elements in the hall. Troubadour represents
Özgen’s first major release and lets the rest of us (who are
not lucky enough to attend one of his multi-sensory performances) in on
the secret.
Troubadour is aptly named – Özgen’s own journey has carried
his music from his native Turkey, through Spain, Connecticut and Arizona,
to his present home in Santa Cruz. “Many troubadours traveled for
great distances, aiding in the transmission of news and culture from one
region to the other,” says Özgen. The opening track, “Variations
on an Anatolian Folk Song” by Domeniconi is based on a Turkish folk
song written by Asik Veysel, a renowned 20th century representative of
the Asik (troubadour) tradition. “The Asiks…singing their
own or others’ poetry and playing saz, has become the voice of common
people…” Anthony Newman’s work “Gigue” shows
Özgen’s fondness for the ecletic and new. Composer Benjamin
Verdery describes “Gigue” as “written in Newman’s
system of substitute harmonies, and features series of short rhythmic
cells that when put together give the effect of an Indian raga.”
The final track is Pratorius’ trilogy “Sonata: Ondas do Mar
de Vigo,” which is based on a Spanish song by the Portugese medieval
troubadour Martin Codax. Troubadour was performed on a 1995 Simon Marty
guitar, with the exception of the song “Misionera,” which
used a 2003 Gil Carnal guitar.
In the early 1990s, Özgen was invited by Verdery to study at Yale
University’s School of Music, where he completed both his Master
of Music and Artist Diploma. Later, he studied with Frank Koonce in the
doctoral program at Arizona State University. Özgen has taught guitar
at the Gazi University School of Medicine and at Hacettepe University
in his native Turkey, and is currently on the guitar faculty at the University
of California at Santa Cruz. He was a prizewinner at the International
Portland Guitar Competition, a featured soloist at both the International
Paco Peña Guitar Festival and the Santa Cruz Baroque Festival,
and premiered new music for the guitar at the Yale Guitar Festival and
the April in Santa Cruz Contemporary Music Festival. Özgen’s
ability to make classical guitar palatable to a larger audience and his
dedication to new musics has inspired composers as varied as Pablo Ortiz,
Benjamin Verdery, Deepak Ram, and Yalçin Tura to compose works
for him.
Golden Horn Records is a Contemporary/Traditional World Music and
Jazz label established in 1995 and based in California.
To learn more about MESUT ÖZGEN, visit his website at www.mesutozgen.com.
For more information on Troubadour, please contact:
GOLDEN HORN RECORDS
P.O. Box 5776, Walnut Creek, California, 94596, U.S.A.
Phone: (925) 930-7184, Fax: (925) 938-8447
E-mail: info@goldenhorn.com web site: www.goldenhorn.com
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