New Music for Large Saxophone Ensemble

Website(s) : http://www.saxophone.okstate.edu / http://www.facebook.com/okstatesaxstudio / http://www.cortonasessions.com

The Cortona Saxophone Collective performs new works by the composers Igor Karača, Roger Petersen, Marc Mellits, and Jeffrey Loeffer, highlighting the versality of Saxophone since its invention.

Biography

The Cortona Saxophone Collective (Great Plains Saxophone Ensemble) is comprised of faculty and students from the Cortona Sessions for New Music, and is lead by music faculty from Oklahoma State Univ., Univ. of Oklahoma, Wichita State Univ., Michigan State Univ., and Central Michigan University. The Cortona Saxophone Collective is dedicated to progressing the saxophone ensemble as a dynamic and viable concert ensemble through premiering new works, creating compelling arrangements and adaptations for saxophone ensemble, and performing works in the standard repertoire at a high level. Recent performances include the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial National Conference. We are committed to maintaining a cooperative artistic and educational relationship between multiple universities.

More information

In a collaborative effort between university students and professors from universities in the central United States, we have created a saxophone ensemble called the Cortona Saxophone Collective (also known as the Great Plains Saxophone Ensemble). The members of this ensemble represent multiple universities including Oklahoma State University, the University of Oklahoma, Wichita State University, Michigan State University, and Central Michigan University, among others. This ensemble has performed together since 2012. We request the opportunity to perform some of our new works for saxophone ensemble by Bosnian composer Igor Karača, as well as American composers Roger Petersen, Marc Mellits, and Jeffrey Loeffert. This program will highlight the idiomatic properties of the saxophone ensemble. In line with one of the objectives of the World Saxophone Congress to showcase the versatility and progression of the saxophone in performance from its invention to present day, this performance proposal features the saxophone ensemble as a vibrant and legitimate concert ensemble.