AyseDeniz Gokcin wrote every piece on this program, nineteen of them, and played piano in all of them. Some were for piano alone and some were for piano with Soundview Strings. Whatever else the photos showed, they needed her face, because they'd be the record of a composer performing her own music. I was shooting from the rear of the hall, and from there the raised lid of the Yamaha cuts across a lot of the frames I'd otherwise want.
Gokcin is a GRAMMY voting member with degrees from Eastman and the Royal Academy of Music, and her music has been used by National Geographic and Amazon Prime.
The frames that worked were the ones where she leaned far enough forward to clear the fallboard, or where an extended arm gave me a gesture to build around. The laptop on the music desk was connected to the piano, so the instrument could play parts on its own while she played against them, which let her duet with herself.
Soundview Strings is Aurora Mendez and Liz Wright on violin, Jay Julio on viola, Ansel Cohen on cello, and Tom Forletti on bass. For the ensemble pieces they spread wide on either side of the piano, with enough space between them that a full-width frame holds six distinct musicians instead of one mass. I stayed wide through the longer ensemble passages and went tighter on Gokcin when the texture thinned to piano alone. The wide frames also take in the columns and the arched niche behind the piano, so anyone looking at them can tell where this was.
From the rear of the hall I watched the string musicians for gestures that would read at that distance, like Jay Julio with his bow arm extended, the viola pulled in close, and his eyes on the stand.
The quintet stayed on stage through the solo pieces, so wide frames still held all six of them. To get Gokcin on her own I went tight and waited for body positions that were doing something beyond hands on the keys, like her back straight mid-phrase or a long reach across the keys.
Working both ways meant Gokcin came away with solo and close frames of her own, and Soundview Strings came away with ensemble shots that show all five of them.
If you're presenting your own music with an ensemble and want a set of photos that works for you and another that works for the musicians, I'd be glad to talk through how to cover it.
Event: A Program of Original Works
Presented by: AyseDeniz + Soundview Strings
Venue: Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall
Date: October 25, 2026
Photographer: Dan Wright
