Fernande Decruck: Symphonies for Saxophone

In 2021 and 2022, conductor Matthew Aubin set out to revitalize the music of the late French female composer Fernande Decruck. This led to the creation of the Equal Billing Project — an initiative to bring the works of underrepresented composers from the past to life.<br />Straight from the Artist Propulsion Lab comes a conversation between Steven Banks and Matthew Aubin as they discuss early 20th century French composer Fernande Decruck, improvising symphonies on the spot, and bringing her fabulous Saxophone Concerto and more to life. <br /><br />Steven: Welcome, Matthew.<br />Matthew: Thanks so much, Steven. I'm pleased to be here.<br />Steven: Congratulations on your new recording.<br />Matthew: Thanks. It's probably a little bit of a revelation or even a new thing, especially as a saxophone player, right?<br />Steven: Well, I nerd out about everything saxophone, any new recordings and new things from Decruck are always exciting. I thought it would be great to just start by asking you, "Who is Fernande Decruck and what makes her art unique?"<br />Matthew: She is a female French composer from the 1930’s and the 1940’s who started her composing career in New York City, actually. Her husband at the time was a bass player and later a saxophone player for the New York Philharmonic. Fernande had studied organ and composition in Paris and then came to New York with her husband for his job with the symphony.<br /><br />"...in the second half, she would ask different people in the audience for themes, and she would take these themes and use them to improvise a symphony on the organ."<br /><br />She continued to give organ recitals, started to compose for the organ, later for the saxophone, and before you knew it, she was composing for all types of genres. I would say she reached the peak of her compositional output during World War II — it seemed like she was getting opportunities to compose for various orchestras in Paris Concerts Lamoureux and Orchestra Pasdeloup, Colonne Orchestra, and basically up until about 1946-