Back in October, Don Freund and I performed his excellent work Sky Scrapings at Eugene Rousseau's Retirement Celebration at the University of Minnesota. Check out the video from the performance below! 

I'm looking forward to being at MSU in Denver next week! I'll be giving a masterclass to the students and playing a recital of works by Berio, Freund, Hayden, Iturralde, and Young with Patricia Surman, flute and Hyun Kim, piano. 

First movement of Jeremy Wagner's epic new work Zusammenfluss for alto saxophone + piano. This performance is from the world premiere on 6 March 2015 at Studio Z in St. Paul. Neil Nanyi Qiang, piano.

Zusammenfluss—a German word for “confluence” from the roots “Zussammen” (together) and “Fluss” (river, flow)—is a work conceived as a dialog between differing modes of temporal perception. Its central object is glimpsed on a multiplicity of time scales to form distinct streams of activity, combined and re-combined in turbulent flow, to explore notions of consonant and dissonant time. It is the fourth installment in a cycle of German-titled duos and trios that form the basis of a large-scale chamber cycle to be completed in 2015. Zusammenfluss was supported by New Music USA, made possible by annual program support and/or endowment gifts from Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Francis Goelet Charitable Lead Trusts, Anonymous.

Thanks to my friend Tomoji Hirakata at the NYC Yamaha Atelier for servicing my instrument a few weeks ago when I was in NYC. It plays terrific! I am honored to be affiliated with such a wonderful company :)

Check out the video from a recent performance at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, IA! is himself no more for tenor saxophone and super collider by Ted Moore.

Please come and join me Sunday, April 27, 2014 for my final DMA recital at the University of Minnesota. The concert will be held at 4PM in Ferguson Hall, Room 85 and I will be assisted by Ted Moore on laptop! The program will include:

Syrinx - Claude Debussy
Hear Again In Memory - Frederick Fox
Suite Rapsodica - Jindrich Feld
Naica - Viet Cuong
eclipse - Ted Moore

I'm very pleased to announce that I am joining the roster of Yamaha Performing Artists! I have played Yamaha saxophones for the past 15 years and think there is not a better of line of instruments on the market today. Yamaha makes one of the best student instruments money can buy, and their professional Custom line of saxophones are unparalleled in terms of intonation, projection, and quality of sound. I could not be happier to be joining a wonderful company and group of artists!  

Check out the video from 3-Play at Skewed Visions Studio featuring Ted Moore's new multimedia work eclipse for improvising instrumentalist, live processing, and live video! 

This post is a bit belated, but I wanted to share my experience with the new Silverstein Works Ligature. A couple of months ago, I was selected to receive a trial ligature as part of the Trial for Pros program. The ligature arrived in a very nice tin box with my name on the side and a bow on top, which was a nice and unexpected touch! When I put the ligature on the mouthpiece and started to play some scales, I was instantly struck at how clear my tone sounded across all registers. The low notes spoke with great ease and the projection in the upper register was impeccable. Was it a huge difference from my current ligature? Not necessarily. I recorded myself over a few days playing both ligatures and after careful comparison, I'm not sure I could tell a big difference from the recording. What a recorder does not pick up, however, is the difference in the feel, which was incredible. I think if I was blindfolded I could tell which ligature was on my instrument just because of the resistance of the reed and ease of projection that I greatly enjoyed in the Silverstein Works ligature.

As for the ligature itself, there is one giant screw on top that adjusts two feet with rubber stoppers down onto the top of the mouthpiece, pulling the five cords tighter against the reed. The cords are completely fixed in place and do not move. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the cords have quite a bit of structure to them and are not 'floppy'. I half expected the ligature to resemble an OLEGature when it was off the mouthpiece, like a wadded up shoestring with a screw attached. However, the ligature is very sturdy and durable! There are two metal plates on either side of the reed that touch the mouthpiece. I found that if these were positioned too closely to the reed they would have a bit of play to them, as they were not even touching the mouthpiece (or at least not securely). I would have to move them up higher on the side to feel that they were snug in place, but I am not sure at how much of a difference it makes in the tone as I found no difference from their various placements.

All in all, this ligature is due some serious consideration when in the market for a new piece of equipment. It certainly fits the bill for everything I look for in a ligature with response, dynamic clarity, ease of project, and tone consistency. The price tag is a little higher compared to other ligatures on the market, but I think it will be money well spent and I look forward to purchasing my own Silverstein Works Ligature.

Visit their website here.