RED SEA JAZZ FESTIVAL 22/02/2020

Saxophonist Lenny Sendersky leads his life in a constant movement between states, sounds and cultures. He was born 37 years ago in Russia, when his hometown of St. Petersburg was still called Leningrad. Around the turn of the millennium, he lived in Denmark and then returned to Russia before finally coming to Israel. At the age of 11, in quite a unique and Jewish way he began playing the saxophone when a saxophone teacher and a father of one of the kids from the synagogue children’s choir where he sang for several years invited him to study the instrument. Today he is a creative composer, producer and performing artist whose original compositions are performed by international jazz musicians such as Randy Brecker, Joe Locke, Tony Romano, Slava Ganelin, Carmen Souza, Theo Pascal, and Amos Hoffman. His nine CDs were released in different countries featuring various collaborations and reflecting the triad base of his career at the intersection of Europe, America and Israel. In New York, he worked with Randy Brecker and Joe Locke, in Israel he recorded free improvisations with Slava Ganelin, with American guitarist, Tony Romano, he played in Russia and in Israel and their quartet recorded two albums in New York. He also worked with Ernesto Simpson, Cleve Douglas, Anat Fort, Andrei Kondakov, Gregory Rivkin, the Guri Agmon and Amikam Kimelman Big Band, and many more, and composes music for theater and film. 

Sendersky brings to Eilat his string quintet project whose debut album recorded in Moscow and Israel is to be released in Europe in February 2020. The combination of classical string musicians with saxophone and jazz creates an explicit and clear way to connect classical jazz to the sensitive touch of classical chamber music as well as to the dance rhythms of Middle Eastern music. Sendersky played with many classical musicians before finding the right balance with a musical group that perfectly fits his jazz compositions. The string quintet together with boundless imagination and improvisation allows creativity to flourish with a music display of a wide range of colors, from Middle Eastern folk and Klezmer music to modern jazz and rock. “I believe music is a gift,” Sendersky says, “and I follow the inspiration and play the music as I feel it.” 

Lenny Sendersky Saxophone Alto/Soprano, Flute 
Eddie Reznik Violin 
Galina Korinets Violin 
Esther Valladares Cello 
Svetlana Litvin Viola 
Ehud Ettun Bass

photo: tanya magnani