A meditative piece for piano solo written in memory of Allan Evans, sound archaeologist.

Ikuno - Chorale on the name of Allan Evans (2021) - Ana Gabriela Fernandez, pf

A virtuosic piano piece where a single melodic line creates a thread of juggles of daredevil intensity.

Ikuno - Chasing the Moon - Ana Gabriela Fernández, piano

Kenichi Ikuno Sekiguchi - KLEINE TOTENTANZ

"Declamaciones y lamento" was written in the last months of 2020 and the beginning of 2021. It is a landscape of the worst COVID wave that hit Mexico. It is dedicated to the memory of Kenji Ikuno.

Interpreters:

Trio Siqueiros:
Juanmanuel Flores, violin
Noé Macías, piano
Ana Karen Rodríguez, cello

Diego Cajas Torres, clarinet

Ikuno - Declamaciones y lamento

Salvador Flores, soprano saxophone
Liz Ames, piano

Live recording - 11/21/2022
Britton Recital Hall, Ann Arbor MI

The Sonata (2021-2022) was commissioned by Salvador Flores and generously funded by the Diversity and Inclusion Grant of the University of Michigan. It is in four movements. The first is in sonata form with at toccata-like first subject and a dance-like contrasting second subject. The second movement is a slow lyrical dirge that progresses from a plaintive song-like theme to an intense climax, ending with both main themes superimposed on each other and then dissolving into nothingness. The third is a brisk and lighthearted, and yet virtuosic, Scherzo based on a fragment of the Bach harmonization of the “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” chorale. The last movement is a percussive and rhythmically intense Rondó based on an Argentinian Indigenous rhythm. The Sonata was composed with the sound and virtuosity of Salvador Flores in mind — his help on technical aspects and encouragement throughout the whole process has been essential for the fruition of this piece — for which I am indebted and am deeply grateful; the Sonata is dedicated to him and his artistry.

Ikuno - Sonata for Saxophone and Piano

Calefax reed quintet

Oboe, Oliver Boekhoorn
Clarinet, Bart de Kater
Soprano Sax, Raaf Hekkema
Bass clarinet, Jelte Althuis
Bassoon, Alban Wesly

Audio engineer: Oliver Boekhoorn

Astro Errante is a work inspired by the painting of the same name by Remedios Varo, a surrealist Spanish painter who was adopted in Mexico during the Second World War.

The painting has a lot of symbolic charge, in a way it reminds me of Summer Music by Samuel Barber and the dreamlike sense where Barber and Varo are related. The idea is to capture the painting with this anthropomorphic being that wanders through space, where its meaning is the transcendence of the idea that maintains its same essence.

Astro Erante for reed quintet

Composer: Kenichi Ikuno Sekiguchi
Performers: Atlys String Quartet

The theme for these variations has an ancient origin: it is the oldest complete composition that has survived to our day. This music was etched on an ancient Greek memorial tablet and was meant to be sung. The text goes as follows:

While you live, shine
have no grief at all
life exists only for a short while
and Time demands his due.

These variations try to evoke a snapshot of different parts of life: happy, melancholic, and exuberant.

Kenichi Ikuno Sekiguchi

Ikuno - Seikilos Variations for String Quartet (2023)

Seikilos Variations has its theme sourced from an ancient Greek memorial tablet from around the 1st ​century C.E., called the Seikilos Epitaph - it is the oldest complete composition that has survived to our ​days. The original text of the music, which influenced the variations, goes as follows: "While you live, shine - have no grief at all [since] life exists only for a short while and Time demands his ​due."

These variations try to evoke different parts of Life in a form of a snapshot: parts being happy, ​sometimes melancholic, sometimes exuberant.

Seikilos Variations by Kenichi Ikuno Sekiguchi

Fukio Ensemble: Joaquín Sáenz Belmonte, Xavier Larsson Paez, José Manuel Bañuls Marcos, Xabier Casal Ares. Orquesta Filarmónica de Zacatecas, Román Revueltas.

El espejo de la angustia - I. Vivace e con fuoco

Morton Feldman- Two Pianos

Written for the composer's wedding, scheduled for April 2020, but postponed to October. Recorded in lockdown by Tabea Debus.

Someone

Japanese-Mexican music composer and arranger. Alumnus of Mannes College, NYC and Royal College of Music, London. Jóvenes Creadores del FONCA 2016/2017.

Ikuno - Sonata for Saxophone and Piano

Kenichi Ikuno Sekiguchi

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