Projects

Saxophone & Organ

Saxophonist Claudia Tesorino has been performing in duos with organ since 1992, appearing in national and international venues. She is the first and only saxophonist who has played in this instrumental combination in the Berlin Cathedral.

“Claudia Tesorino is the only saxophonist who copes well with the low tuning of the Sauer organ in the Berlin Cathedral. Her exuberant energy, her expressive qualities and precise intonation, along with her sense of time and space, make her playing into a gift…” says Berliner Dom organist Prof. Andreas Sieling.

Claudia Tesorino’s repertoire ranges from Bach, Telemann, Fauré, Hakim, Bédard, Piazzolla, and Vasks to works written for her and improvisations.

She has released three saxophone and organ CDs and performed in duo with organ in Catedral de Barcelona, Peterskirche Basel, Philharmonie Essen, Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche Berlin, Altenberger Dom, Berliner Dom, Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul Montréal/CAN, Bach Festival Montréal/CAN, Orgue et Couleurs Montréal/CAN, Festival Organistico Internazionale San Leonardo in Cerreto Guidi/I,  Internationale Orgelkonzerte Saarbrücken, Istituto San Giuseppe De Merode Roma/I, and the Westminster Presbyterian Church Buffalo/USA, among others.

For more duo videos with organ click here: youtube

Tesorino Quartet

In “Before & After” saxophonist Claudia Tesorino tells the story of a traumatic event she experienced in 2019 and how it turned her life upside down.

Tesorino has made a name for herself with her improvisational projects. In “Before & After,” she goes a step further, connecting free improvisation with her own compositions. She draws her inspiration from many varieties of music that have been important for her thus far, bringing together influences from jazz, world music, and classical and experimental music.

  • Claudia Tesorino – concept, composition, soprano and tenor saxophone, violin, piano, bansuri
  • Nishad Pandey – electric guitar
  • Carmelo Leotta – double bass
  • Fabian Habicht – drums and percussion

 The “Before & After” CD is available here:  Bandcamp

My tribute to the saxophone

For this band project, Claudia Tesorino has put together a program made up of pieces that fascinate her, by composers and artists who inspire her. She picks from a wide range of classical saxophone pieces, plus jazz standards, Latin and pop hits, world music, and film music.

The focus of this program is always the saxophone and its enormous versatility. At one moment, the soprano sax is transformed into a Sicilian wooden flute, the zufoletto; then the sound of the alto saxophone transports us to the Roaring Twenties and their optimistic outlook. With the tone varying from a sharp pop sound to smooth or funky, the saxophone sings, weeps, tells stories, pokes fun, murmurs, and seduces.

A first-rate band with piano, guitar, bass, and percussion joins Claudia Tesorino and her polygot saxophone family on the stage. Music from Darius Milhaud, Dexter Gordon, Barbara Thompson, Rudy Wiedoeft, Grover Washington, Jr., Keith Jarrett, Karl Jenkins, the Isley Brothers, Jay Beckenstein, and others guarantees an exciting listening experience.

Saxophone Solo

Claudia Tesorino displays her keen sense of time and space in her solo improvisations. She loves to pick up interesting noises and sounds and pass them on to the listeners with her “sonic signature.” Everything is permitted OR allowed, everything is music, meaning that she is not afraid to mix lyrical melodies with contemporary playing techniques or groovy patterns. The search for new paths and sounds arises in a completely natural way.

Her intuition and creativity guide her and enable her to paint musical pictures that cannot be assigned to any genre, while her signature full tone and accurate intonation are heard throughout. Claudia Tesorino lets the echoes of classical, contemporary, jazz, and world music be heard in her improvisations.

Saxophone & Piano

In her duo program for saxophone and piano, Claudia Tesorino plays her favorite pieces of original music for this instrumental combination. These include a wide range of compositions by Paul Creston, Otmar Mácha, Paul Ben-Haim, Jeanine Rueff, Paule Maurice, and Pedro Itturalde, among others, as well as works written for her by Matthieu Lussier and Derek Healey.

In addition, she likes to include arrangements of pieces by Leonard Bernstein, Astor Piazzolla, Edvard Grieg, and Edward Elgar in her concert programs. 

ENSTICTOS

What happens when a German-Canadian, classically trained saxophonist engages in improvisation with a Greek drummer steeped in the traditions of Pontic music? ENSTICTOS is the answer: a duo that forges passionate, unbound music that defies conventional classification. Their sound, at once structured and spontaneous, spans a variety of instruments—including soprano and tenor saxophones, bansuri, drum set, and tabla—each piece unfolding organically in the moment.

The musical journey of ENSTICTOS began with an instant connection when Claudia Tesorino and Kostas Anastasiadis met for their first session in Thessaloniki in the summer of 2024. It was “love at first sound”. Despite their diverse backgrounds, the two artists share a profound kinship as listeners and improvisers, each possessing a signature sound and mastery over their respective musical traditions. 

Macedonian drummer Kostas Anastasiadis is renowned for his roots in Pontic music and his training in jazz and North Indian music. A seasoned festival performer across continents, he has shared the stage with renowned musicians worldwide and is the creator of “The Harmony of Rhythm,” a pioneering method in rhythm theory.

Together as ENSTICTOS, Tesorino, and Anastasiadis craft an extraordinary soundscape where intricate melodies merge with vibrant, globally inspired rhythms. Their music transcends borders and traditions, leading audiences on a

Speech & Music

Collaboration with artist Annegret Suaudeau.


‘Conversation at the Border’
Performance with music, voice, sound, video and slide projections

‘In their live improvisations, Tesorino and Suaudeau manufacture audio and text as shimmering stories and previously unheard sounds. The saxophone, melodica, piano or flute play, the text responds, sometimes also clashing with the music. Occasionally the text poses a question and the saxophone answers or disagrees. Their interplay doesn’t seek meaning, but commonality – playfulness – also leading to the absurd.’

Ellen Paschiller

Bansuri & Lyre

Claudia Tesorino also performs on Indian bamboo flute, the  bansuri, for example in duo with Greek musician Theodoros Koumartzis on ancient Greek lyre.