Date: Mar 20, 2012

Jazz Up Your Friday …

New York Saxophone Quartet to Perform Free Concert, March 30

Photo caption: The New York Saxophone Quartet (l to r): Steve Kenyon, Dan Goble, Dennis Anderson and John Winder. Photo by Anna Reinersman.

Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY …  The Department of Music is presenting an afternoon concert by The New York Saxophone Quartet (NYSQ), featuring outstanding new compositions by Steve Kenyon and Dennis Anderson, plus featured works by David Matthews, Jean Baptiste Loeillet and George Gershwin.

The concert is free and open to the public. Performance time is Friday, March 30, 2012, at 3 p.m. at The Helene Fortunoff Theater, located in Monroe Lecture Center, along California Avenue on Hofstra’s South Campus. For more information call the Department of Music at 516-463-5490.

NYSQ, formed in 1959, is dedicated to commissioning new works for the saxophone ensemble and performing contemporary cutting-edge repertoire in both the classical and jazz fields. From its earliest days, as the ensemble gained notoriety and developed its own American sound, prominent composers and arrangers began to write new material, including Gene DiNovi, John Carisi, Hal Schaefer, Manny Albam, Calvin Hampton, George Handy, Eddie Sauter, and Phil Woods.

NYSQ currently features soprano saxophone Dennis Anderson, instrumentalist and composer; alto saxophone Dan Goble, current chair and professor of saxophone at Western Connecticut State University; tenor saxophone Steve Kenyon, woodwind player and composer, current lead saxophonist and clarinetist with Porgy and Bess on Broadway and a saxophone instructor at Hofstra; and baritone saxophone John Winder, who  has performed with The New York Philharmonic under Masur and Maazel, The New Jersey Symphony, New York City Ballet, New York City Opera, and American Symphony.

Former members of the NYSQ include Stan Getz, Al Cohn, Albert Regni, Danny Bank, Dave Tofani, Ray Beckenstein, Wally Kane, Harvey Estrin, Hal McKusick, Ed Caine, Al Epstein, Billy Kerr, Alva Hunt, Ralph Olsen, Ken Hitchcock, Lino Gomez, and Rob Debellis.

NYSQ has performed in concert around the United States, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, Great Britain and Japan, including recitals at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Auditorium, Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Dizzy Gillespie Auditorium, Charlotte Performing Arts Center, Symphony Space @Leonard Nimoy/Thalia Theater, Mannes School of Music, WQXR and WNYC Radio. They have appeared with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New York Philharmonic; participated in international music conferences, community concerts tours, and World Saxophone Congresses.

For more information on NYSQ visit www.nysaxophonequartet.com .

Related Link: More About The New York Saxophone Quartet