During Defontaine's time at the Paris Conservatoire, the Habanera Saxophone Quartet was founded, quickly gaining international recognition through numerous competition wins and awards. Gilles Tressos, a founding member, continues to perform with the ensemble to this day. Defontaine composed Couleurs d’un rêve (Colours of a Dream) for Tressos. This work is warmly romantic and distinctively French in its fluid shapes and imaginative colours, blending and contrasting the rich timbres and textures of the instruments to striking effect.
Higdon is one of America’s most acclaimed and most frequently performed living composers. She received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in Music, a 2010 Grammy, and a 2018 Grammy. Twilight showcases her signature blend of most often tonal sonorities, accessible lyricism, and intricate rhythm to create atmospheric soundscapes, particularly the evocative calm here.
Hong Kong-born composer Alvin Leung is currently a PhD candidate in Music Composition at the University of North Texas. His works have been presented in various places in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Composed originally for alto saxophone, viola and piano, Deep Blue Heart utilises Romantic musical idioms to explore emotions of fragility and vulnerability. After growing into an intense climax in the middle, the piece ultimately resolves into a calmer ending, suggesting acceptance. The work was later adapted in 2025 for alto saxophone, violin and piano.
i Rock — Thru a Stained Glass Window, ii Stone Cold Sentiment, iii The Last Chord
Born in England, Nikola Resanovic has lived in the United States from an early age. He graduated from the University of Akron with a Bachelor of Music degree in 1977 and retired from a 35-year career as Professor of Composition and Theory there in 2018. Resanovic’s Serbian heritage shows in the rhythmic energy of the outer movements of his 10-minute Trio, while the middle movement is descriptively written with chilling violin tremolandos and high, crystalline writing in the piano.
'This city that bears your nickname, that lane his shadow, this nook another him's scent'. The title of this piece grew out of the composer’s contemplation on how the names of cities, streets, and roads often pass unnoticed — words we use without thought, stripped of the histories or affections they once carried. Yet for each of us, certain places hold private meanings — a name that recalls a voice, a street that keeps a memory, a corner that still belongs to someone once dear. The work is an emotional map of attachments and a meditation on love, memory, and distance: between those who stay and those who move on, between homeland and elsewhere, between one kind of intimacy and another.
i Romance, ii Metamorphosis
Romance and Metamorphosis are two instrumental movements, the second and the seventh, respectively, taken from Songs to the Fair Youth: 6 Songs on Fluidity. It is part of the composer’s project to set the complete Shakespeare sonnets into song cycles. Romance is composed in the tradition of similarly titled works by Robert Schumann, characterised by passionate urgency that gives way to tender, lyrical passages. Metamorphosis traces a journey of self-discovery and transformation.
Beginning with themes of nature and the forest, Koechlin’s interests evolved to encompass classical mythology, Kipling’s Jungle Book stories and, later, the world of cinema. He had in the past become infatuated with particular actresses who served as his muses, and the early death of Jean Harlow, the ‘Blond Bombshell’ of 1930s cinema, left her with only one, all-too-brief tribute from Koechlin. Reflecting on the work, he wrote: “I found that this melody depicted her so well that I did not hesitate to dedicate it to her as an epitaph. The sound of the saxophone should have all the easy sweetness of the star and her California.”
i A Song without Words, ii Burlesque
Kristina Arakelyan’s work as composer, pianist and educator is guided by a clear vision of music’s intrinsic power and purpose. An Armenian-British, prize-winning musician, her compositions are hallmarked by their striking beauty and compelling emotional honesty. Two Pieces for violin, saxophone, and piano is a part of a series of compositions reacting to the word 'dance'. The initial compositional reaction was to create a fast, fun, breathless dance, reminiscent of a circus act, perhaps a clown's haphazard movements. The first movement, entitled A Song Without Words, was written as a contrast to the dance movement; and, as the title hints, this is a lyrical movement, perhaps a confession of love.
Kwan-Lam Lau - Violin
Kwan-lam Lau (violinist) performs regularly as a soloist and chamber musician across the UK, Europe, and Hong Kong. She holds a Professional Diploma, a Master of Arts in Performance, and a Licentiate Diploma in Teaching from the Royal Academy of Music, as well as a bachelor’s degree from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her studies were supported by the Hong Kong Scholarship for Excellence Scheme, the Henry Wood Accommodation Trust, the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrument Purchase Grants, and scholarships from her conservatoires. She was invited to serve as a jury member and to give masterclasses at the Hong Kong International String Competition in 2023 and 2024.
Alvin Wong - Saxophone
Alvin Wong (saxophonist) has won solo prizes, including the Illinois MTNA Young Artist Woodwind Competition and the Evanston Music Club, North Shore Musicians Club Competition in the US, and the Grand Prize Virtuoso International Music Competition in Belgium. He has a diverse performance profile in solo, ensemble, and orchestral settings and in traditional, contemporary and commercial contexts, bringing him to many major venues, especially across Asia. He obtained his master’s from Northwestern University and furthered his study afterwards at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp as a postgraduate concert soloist.
Lance Mok - Piano
Lance Mok’s versatile concert career as a pianist has taken him around the world — from the UK and Hong Kong to the Netherlands, Finland, Poland, Korea, Taiwan, Macau, and the US — and his performances have been broadcast on radio and television, and featured in film. He is committed to promoting contemporary music, which led him to establish his ensemble, Resonance Frontier, in 2026. His compositions have been performed at Smith Square Hall (London), Conway Hall (London), O. Festival (Rotterdam), the 20th World Saxophone Congress (Harbin), and the French May Arts Festival (HK), amongst others. He won Third Prize at The Clements Prize 2025 and has been awarded funding from the National Lottery Project Grants for his projects. Lance has served as an ABRSM examiner since 2023.
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