World Premiere of Alto Saxophone Composition by Mark Phillips

Website(s) : http://www.ohio.edu/sax / http://www.ohio.edu/people/jamesm1/OUSAX/James/

Biography

Matthew James is Professor of Saxophone and Associate Director of the Ohio University School of Music in Athens, Ohio. He has appeared at conferences of the North American Saxophone Alliance, Society of Composers Inc., International Double Reed Society, College Music Society, Jazz Education Network, and more. International activities have included performances at Universidad Nacional de Cuyo and World Flutes Festival (Mendoza, Argentina), Conservatorio Nacional de Musica (Buenos Aires), and the University of Bergen (Norway). James performed as lead alto saxophonist with the Glenn Miller Orchestra and Phil Collins Big Band, touring the U.S., Canada, Europe, Japan and South America. He holds the B.A. from Northern Illinois University, and M.M. and D.M.A. from the University of North Texas.

More information

This untitled composition will feature solo alto saxophone performing with pre-recorded audio (fixed media), and limited live audio processing. The pre-recorded audio will be saxophone sounds that Mark Phillips and I will record in January and February 2015, and Mark will then process to create the accompaniment. The composition will be approximately 10 minutes in length. Mark will also be in attendance at the Congress, and will provide technical support at this performance. The audio will be on laptop computer.

Composer Biography:

Mark Phillips won the 1988 Barlow International Competition for Orchestral Music. Leonard Slatkin has conducted his music with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the NHK Symphony Orchestra of Japan. More recently (November 2013), the Peabody Modern Orchestra opened its inaugural concert with a performance of his Shadow Dancing. Earlier in 2013, his String Quartet No. 2 was performed at the Festival Internacional de Música de Bogotá. Following a national competition, Pi Kappa Lambda commissioned a chamber work from Phillips, which led to the premiere of Bushwhacked! in San Antonio, Texas (September 2006). Commissioned for a 2005 premiere in Memphis, his Dreams Interrupted has received numerous subsequent performances in Pittsburgh, Duluth, Baltimore, Dallas, Louisville, South Bend, Birmingham (AL), and Athens (Ohio). In 2004 Phillips premiered Turning Two Hundred, a 50-minute commissioned work for orchestra, jazz band, drum corps, handbell choir, electronic music, eight instrumental soloists, video, and dance. His music has received hundreds of performances throughout the world — including dozens of orchestra performances — and has been recorded by Richard Stoltzman and the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Lark Quartet, and several solo artists. Mr. Phillips has also received awards from the Ohio Arts Council, the Indiana Arts Commission, ASCAP, Meet the Composer, Ohio University, Indiana University, the Delius Composition Competition, and the National Flute Society.

Mr. Phillips is a Distinguished Professor of Music at the Ohio University, where he has taught since 1984. From 1982-84 he was a Visiting Instructor of composition at the Indiana University School of Music. Born in Philadelphia, he holds a B.M. degree from West Virginia University and both an M.M. degree and a D.M. degree from Indiana University.