Crane Saxophone Chamber Music Festival Returns to Campus

Related Media

The Capitol Quartet will perform at 8 p.m. on April 2 as part of the Crane Saxophone Chamber Music Festival at SUNY Potsdam.

POTSDAM, NY (03/24/2011)(readMedia)-- SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music will host the 2011 Crane Saxophone Chamber Music Festival on Saturday, April 2 in Sara M. Snell Music Theater. This daylong celebration of chamber music featuring the saxophone will include performances by high school, college and professional groups.

All events are free, and the public is invited to attend.

"The event is unique; it is a daylong schedule of events, packed with ensembles that vary quite a bit in instrumentation, the common thread being that the saxophone plays a major role in each group. Participating ensembles hail from as far away as Louisiana and Oregon," said organizer Dr. Christopher Creviston. "The day will conclude with an jam session at Maxfield's in downtown Potsdam, so bring your horn!"

The festival will kick off with a masterclass with guest artists at 10 a.m., including Crane student groups Serpent Trio, Opus 22 and Conflict Quartet, as well as the Southwind Saxophone Quartet consisting of students from Terrebonne High School and Houma Junior High School in Louisiana.

Following a lunch break, student performances will continue, with the Potsdam High School Saxophone Quartet and the 2010 Crane Youth Music Honor Quartet, consisting of students from Averill Park, Skaneateles and Salem Central high schools. Two Crane student groups, the Pilnick-Rybolt Duo and the Arctos Quartet, will also play.

The festival will continue at 2 p.m. with performances by Jason Laczkoski and Friends, a guest group consisting of a headliner saxophonist, Anna Draper on violin and Daniel Immel on piano, all from Lycoming College, and the Wozniak Duo, consisting of Lois Hicks-Wozniak on saxophone and Matthew Wozniak on bass trombone. The New York City-based Downstate Saxophone Consort will also perform. That group includes Geoff Landman on soprano, Kristen McKeon on alto, Justin Marks on tenor and Erin Rogers on baritone saxophone.

At 4 p.m., the festival will offer performances by Switch and the Nocturne Quartet, two Crane School of Music student groups. The Façade Saxophone Quartet, based at Michigan State University, will also be showcased.

Two headliner groups will perform back-to-back in the festival's finale concert starting at 7 p.m. Saxophonist Idit Shner and harpist Yumiko Endo Schlaffer will present a varied concert, starting with the three-movement "Sonatina 'Hommage à Mozart'" by Jean-Louis Petit and Yvonne Desportes' "Une Fleur sur L'Étang." The duo will play Albert Roussel's "Impromptu No. 21," Philippe Di Betta's "Fissures," Isabelle Marcoux's "Ofaerufoss" and Yusef Lateef's 1991 piece "Romance," including movements entitled "with love," "cheerfully," and "quarter-note = 100."

The Capitol Quartet will close out the day's concerts on the Snell Stage with a varied program at 8 p.m. Consisting of Crane School of Music Assistant Professor Christopher Creviston on soprano, Joseph Lulloff on alto, David Stambler on tenor and Andrew Dahlke on baritone saxophone, the group will start off with Whitney Ashe's recent composition, "Three Movements for Saxophone Quartet." The concert will continue with John Fitz Rogers' "Prodigal Child," and an arrangement of "Simple Gifts" by Mike Crotty. The Capitol Quartet will then play a piece entitled "Run," composed by Crane's own Gregory Wanamaker, a professor and composer. The group will finish out their show with a performance of the four-movement 1949 piece "Quatour," by Maurice and Faustin Jean Jean, and with the Ellington classic "It Don't Mean a Thing (If it Ain't Got that Swing)."

The festival will continue at 10 p.m. with an open jam session for of-age saxophonists at Maxfield's restaurant in downtown Potsdam.

To find out more about the 2011 Crane Saxophone Chamber Music Festival, visit cranesaxchamberfest.weebly.com/index.html.

Keep track of the many concerts on the busy calendar of events at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music by visiting www.potsdam.edu/crane.

###

Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution, and is celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2011.

-www.potsdam.edu/crane-