The Los Angeles Piano Quartet performs the world premiere of Kamran Ince’s Far Variations on March 31 at the Leo Rich Theater in Tucson, Arizona. Commissioned by the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music with the sponsorship of Sherrill Akyol, Far Variations is written in memory of Dr. Salim Akyol, a Turkish ex-patriot who lived in the US. Ince elaborates:

Dr. Salim Akyol grew up in Turkey, but after medical school, spent most of his life in the United States. He loved the US but never stopped longing for his home country:  the sights, the sounds, the culture, the food, and the people. This love and longing from a great distance is the inspiration for Far Variations.

My personal experience of being based in these two countries helps me imagine what Dr. Akyol must have felt. It is exciting and a privilege to belong to two countries, but emotionally not always easy. Being a doctor and a father in the US, Dr. Akyol could not travel to Turkey often. His love was from afar.

Naxos is scheduled to release four new albums of Kamran Ince's music over the next two years, two of which will be made available exclusively for digital download. These are:

• Galatasaray – Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Kamran Ince conductor. Includes Symphony No. 5, "Galatasaray"; Hot, Red, Cold, Vibrant; Requiem Without Words; and Before Infrared.

• Constantinople – Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, Kamran Ince, conductor and Isin Metin, conductor. Includes Symphony No. 2, “Fall of Constantinople"; Concerto for Orchestra, Turkish Instruments and Voices; Infrared Only; and Concerto for Piano and Orchestra.

• Hammers & Whistlers (digital release) – Present Music, Kevin Stalheim, conductor. Includes Hammers & Whistlers; Strange Stone; Istathenople; and Curve.

• Music for a Lost Earth: Ambient Music Project (digital release) – Istanbul Modern Music Ensemble, Cihat Askin, solo violin, Kamran Ince, piano.

Kamran Ince is currently at work completing his first opera The Judgment of Midas which recently saw preview performances of selected excerpts at OPERA America’s National Trustee Opera Recognition Ceremony in New York at the University Club.

Learn more on the music of Kamran Ince by visiting www.schott-music.com and www.kamranince.com.

Go to lapianoquartet.com for more on the performance.

Kamran Ince
Far Variations (2009)
for piano quartet
piano, violin, viola and 'cello
15’