Asya Fateyeva

Saxophone

IN THE MAGAZINE

In the magazine

Asya Fateyeva’s recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, performed with cellist Eckart Runge and accordionist Andreas Borregaard, has now been released on the Berlin Classics label.

THU 29.10.

19:30
Tonhalle St. Gallen

SAT 31.10.

19:30
Georgenkirche Eisenach

TUE 10.11.

20:00
Schlosstheater Fulda

THU 12.11.

19:30
Fruchthalle, Kaiserslautern

FRI 27.11.

13:47
KONTOR

WED 16.12.

19:30
Philharmonie Mercatorhalle Duisburg

THU 17.12.

19:30
Philharmonie Mercatorhalle Duisburg

THU 31.12.

17:00
KKL Lucerne

FRI 01.01.

17:00
Tonhalle Zurich

Biography

Asya Fateyeva is one of the leading figures in the world of classical saxophone. With her warm, richly coloured tone and her openness to unconventional repertoire choices, she continually opens up new perspectives for her instrument. As a soloist and chamber musician, her repertoire ranges from Baroque and Classical through Romantic to contemporary music, jazz and world music. In July 2026, she gave the world premiere of a new saxophone concerto by Erkki-Sven Tüür at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, performing with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under the baton of Kazuki Yamada. The Swedish premiere will follow at the Baltic Sea Festival with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen.

As a soloist, Asya Fateyeva has made guest appearances with, amongst others, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the Kammerakademie Potsdam and Ensemble Resonanz. She has worked with conductors such as Robin Ticciati, Nil Venditti, Bar Avni, Vladimir Spivakov, Joseph Bastian, Dirk Kaftan and Michael Sanderling. Her engagements have taken her to venues including the Vienna Musikverein, the Lucerne Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, where she was the featured artist in 2024. In September 2026, she was awarded the Schleswig-Holstein State Art Prize.

As Artist-in-Residence with the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2026/27 season, she will offer insights into the full breadth of her musical talent, and amongst others, play the world premiere of a saxophone concerto by the Mexican composer Enrico Chapela. Other highlights of the season include concerts with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Lake Constance Philharmonic, the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Hof Symphony Orchestra, the Bremen Philharmonic and the Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra Innsbruck. During the 2025/26 season, she made her debut with the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Brucknerhaus in Linz, the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire and the Darmstadt State Orchestra. She continues her collaboration with Lautten Compagney Berlin, with whom she received an Opus Klassik award in 2025 for the recording Dancing Queen – a programme featuring music by ABBA and Rameau. In autumn 2025, Nutcracker Unwrapped was released, featuring an arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker by Wolf Kerschek.

A particular focus of her artistic work lies in chamber music. Together with a variety of partners, she develops programmes that place well-known works in new contexts and bring together different musical traditions. These include, amongst others, programmes featuring music from the 1920s, as well as projects that draw connections between different musical traditions and eras. Her recording of the Goldberg Variations, made with cellist Eckart Runge and accordionist Andreas Borregaard, was released by Berlin Classics and exemplifies her commitment to continually expanding the classical saxophone repertoire through innovative projects.

Asya Fateyeva began her musical training as a young student with Daniel Gauthier at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. She received further artistic guidance from Claude Delangle in Paris and Jean-Denis Michat in Lyon. She subsequently completed a postgraduate chamber music programme at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. She gained international recognition in 2014 when she became the first woman to reach the final of the International Adolphe Sax Competition in Dinant, where she was awarded third prize. Since 2023, Asya Fateyeva has been Professor of Classical Saxophone at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. She also teaches at the Musikhochschule Lübeck.

2026/27 season

This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorised by the artist management.

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Repertoire

France/Switzerland

Claude Debussy Rhapsodie mauresque 10‘ (1903)

André Caplet Légende 14‘ (1903)

Vincent d´Indy Choral varié op.55 11‘ (1903)

Florent Schmitt Légende Op.66 11‘ (1918)

Jacques Ibert Concertino da camera 13‘ (1935)

Darius Milhaud Scaramouche 9‘ (1937)

Frank Martin Ballade for alto saxophone 14‘ (1938)

Henri Tomasi Saxophone Concerto 19‘ (1949)

Pierre-Max Dubois Concerto 20‘ (1962)

Marius Constant Concertante 19‘ (1978/79)

Guillaume Connesson Kind of Trane 18' (2004)

Jean-Denis Michat Shams 18‘ (2010)

USA

Philip Glass Violin Concerto 1 25' (1987)

John Williams Escapades 15‘ (2002)

Thomas Sleeper Concerto 14‘ (2010)

John Adams Saxophone Concerto 28‘ (2013)

Central Europe

Erwin Schulhoff Hot-Sonate 15‘ (1930)

Wolfgang Jacobi Konzert 17‘ (1961)

Edison Denisov Concerto 27' (1975)

Stefan Niculescu Sinfonia Concertante „Cantos“ 23‘ (1981)

Tristan Keuris Three Sonnets 10‘ (1989)

Krzysztof Penderecki Concerto for alto 20‘ (1984)

Myriam Marbe Saxophone Concerto 32‘ (1986)

Krzysztof Meyer Concerto 17‘ (1992)

Alexandre Raskatov Farewell from the birds of passage 17´ (1994)

Dimitri Terzakis (k)ein Helden Leben 15´ (1995)

Jacob TV Tallahatchie Concerto 21‘ (2001)

Péter Eötvös Focus 22‘ (2022)

Gavin Bryars Allegrasco 20‘ (1983)

Harrison Birthwistle Panic 21‘ (1996)

Michael Nyman Where the Bee Dances 17' (2001)

Edward Gregson Concerto 24‘ (2004)

Mark-Anthony Turnage Hidden Love Song 11‘ (2005)

Gabriel Prokofiev Saxophone Concerto 39' (2016)

James Macmillan Saxophone Concerto 17‘ (2017)

Anna Clyne Glasslands 25' (2022)

Jazz influence

Erwin Schulhoff Hot-Sonate 15‘ (1930)

Dmitri Smirnov Triple Concerto for saxophone, piano and double-bass Op. 21 18‘ (1977)

Nikolai Kapustin Saxophone Concerto Op. 50 16‘ (1978)

Andrei Eshpai Saxophone Concerto 22‘ (1985)

Anders Koppel Saxophone Concerto No. 1 32‘ 1997

Anders Koppel Saxophone Concerto No. 2 23‘ (2003)

John Psathas Omnifenix 16‘ (2000)

John Psathas Zahara 24‘ (2005)

Women Composers

Fernande Decruck Sonate en Ut# 23‘ (1943)

Paule Maurice Tableaux de Provence 14‘ (1948)

Ida Gotkovsky Concerto 22‘ 1987

Nicola LeFanu Concerto for saxophone and strings 24‘ (1989)

South

Luciano Berio Chemins IV 10‘ (1975) Recit Chemins VII 14‘

Heitor Villa-Lobos Fantasia 11‘ (1948)

Avner Dorman Saxophone Concerto 14‘ (2003)

John Psathas Zahara 24‘ (2005)

John Psathas Omnifenix 16‘ (2000)

Jean-Denis Michat Shams 18‘ (2010)

Roberto Molinelli Four Pictures from New York 24‘ (2011)

Nordic Sounds

Lars-Erik Larsson Concerto 20‘ (1934)

Esa-Pekka Salonen Concerto 17‘ (... auf den ersten Blick und ohne zu wissen...) (1980)

Anders Koppel Saxophone Concerto No. 1 32‘, No. 2 23‘ (2003)

Kalevi Aho Chamber Symphony No. 3 28‘ (2005)

Kalevi Aho Saxophone Concerto 25‘ (2014)

Outi Tarkiainen Saivo 27' (2025)

Japanese

Takashi Yoshimatsu Cyber-bird Concerto Op. 59 24´ (1994)

Toshio Hosokawa Saxophone Concerto 13‘ (1998)

Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra

Alexander Glasunov Saxophone Concerto Op. 109 15‘ (1934)

Lars-Erik Larsson Concerto 20‘ (1934)

Henri Tomasi Concerto for Alto Saxophon 19´ (1949)

Ingolf Dahl Concerto for Alt Saxophone and wind ensemble 19' (1953)

Ida Gotkovsky Saxophone Concerto 17'

Frank Martin Ballade für alto saxophone, strings, piano and percussion 15‘ (1938)

Ida Gotkovsky Variations pathétiques 31‘ (1980)

Gavin Bryars Allegrasco 20‘ (1983)

Claude T. Smith Fantasia 12´ (1983)

Nicola LeFanu Concerto for saxophone and strings 24‘ (1989)

Krzysztof Meyer Concerto Op. 79 17‘ (1992)

Giya Kancheli Night Prayers 23‘ (2005)

Toshio Mashima Birds Concerto 17´ (2009)

Kalevi Aho Saxophone Concerto 25‘ (2014)

David Maslanka Concerto for alt Saxophone and wind ensemble 42' (2016)

Baroque, classical and romantic transcriptions

J.S. Bach (1685-1750) Concerto in G minor BWV 1056r 10‘

Concerto in A minor BWV 1041 14‘

Double concerto in C minor BWV 1060 15‘

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) Concerto in C major RV 446 9‘

The Seasons 42‘

Benedetto Marcello (1673-1747) Concerto in C minor 10‘

CPE Bach (1714-1788) diverse concerti

Domenico Cimarosa (1749-1801) Concerto in C major 11‘

W.A. Mozart (1756-1791) Concerto in C major K.314 22‘

Concerto K.622 31‘

Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848) Concertino in G major for English Horn 10'

Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) Concerto in E-flat major 10‘

Johannes Brahms Sonatas Op.120 No. 1 & No. 2 Version for Saxophone and Orchestra

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) Violin Concerto Op.64 30'

Francois Borne (1840-1920) Fantasie Brillante sur des airs de Carmen 15'

Cecile Chaminade (1857-1944) Concertino D-Dur Op.107 9'

Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) Violin Concerto Op.47 38'

Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) Tango Suite 12'

Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978) Violin Concerto d-moll Op. 46 39'

References

“A remarkable recording, realized with such stylistic finesse that even purists may be won over. This has far more behind it than the virtuosic mastery of the performers alone. Saxophonist Asya Fateyeva brings immense experience as a fearless musical trailblazer.”

Neue Ruhr Zeitung, 28 May 2026

“They dance in a circle through the structures, tossing lines to one another, breathing life into the counterpoints. You hear details you’ve never heard before in the hundreds of previous versions. You’re enchanted by the weightlessness, the melancholic yet cheerful interplay of colours, by the fleeting sparkle of the melodic shifts in light. You marvel, and fall completely silent.”

Die Welt, Elmar Krekeler, 29 June 26

"With Asya Fateyeva, Eckart Runge, and Andreas Borregaard, three renowned soloists have joined forces for this project (...). And indeed, one is tempted to say that these thoroughly familiar variations have rarely been experienced with such richness and variety in recent years. The instruments dance and sing, smile and ponder. Here, the intimate suddenly takes on the character of chamber orchestra music. Then again—as in the great Variation No. 25—the three musicians pause to meditate together. And as a listener, one simply has the privilege of witnessing it all from very close range."

Guido Fischer, rondomagazin.de, 30 September 2026