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The Toronto Saxophone Collective (TSC) will finish their 2023/24 season on June 2 with a live performance that spans a century and a half of music. Together with Dvořák, Gershwin and Steve Reich, a spotlight of the live performance would be the Canadian premiere of Steven Banks’ Power to Climb.
Simply shaped final 12 months, the Toronto Saxophone Collective fills a niche not simply within the metropolis’s music scene, however on the earth of classical music total.
The Toronto Saxophone Collective
TSC is a brand new ensemble within the metropolis’s music scene. Shaped in 2023, the group performs music in a variety of genres and types from classical to up to date. The saxophone is a uncared for instrument on the earth of Western artwork music, and the Collective goals to exhibit the chances and potential of the instrument.
The ensemble incorporates your complete sax household, from sopranino to the massive bass instrument. Their debut season featured a collaboration with Canadian composer Robert Lemay and the College of Toronto Modern Music Ensemble. TSC additionally held a winter live performance fundraiser for Ukrainian orphans in 2023.
The Toronto Saxophone Collective present members:
- Shawn Bennett, Conductor
- Christopher Jones, Soprano/Sopranino Saxophones
- Jason Lau, Soprano Saxophone
- Bingchen (George) He, Alto/Soprano Saxophones
- Justin Massey, Alto/Soprano Saxophones
- Chantelle Tom-Ying, Alto/Soprano Saxophones
- Robert Hess, Alto Saxophone
- Blake Smith, Alto/Tenor Saxophones
- Harrison Argatoff, Tenor Saxophone
- Peter Gilli, Tenor Saxophone
- Stefan Bello, Tenor Saxophone
- Kannan Bloor, Tenor Saxophone
- Jeffrey Leung, Baritone Saxophone
- Yunfei Xie, Baritone Saxophone
- Min Gu Kang, Baritone/Bass Saxophones
The Program
Antonin Dvořák: Serenade in D Minor, Op. 44 (1878)
The Czech composer wrote his Op. 44 at a time when his star was rising in Prague. It’s impressed by Brahm’s Hungarian Dances, utilizing Slavic people dance music in classical-era varieties. The unique orchestration was written for a small group of wind devices together with cello and bass. Todd Yukumoto wrote this transcription for sax ensemble in 2014.
Steven Banks: Power to Climb (2022) Canadian premiere
American classical saxophonist Steven Banks composed this work for a sax ensemble, particularly the Northwestern College Saxophone Ensemble, with a theme of reflecting on the adjustments and fragilities that the COVID-19 pandemic revealed. He writes the work across the beloved gospel track Lord Don’t Transfer the Mountain.
In his personal notes, Banks writes, “This track is a reminder to us that hardship is inevitable. We want not run from it. We simply want to search out the power to proceed climbing.”
Steve Reich: New York Counterpoint (1985)
Reich wrote this piece for a clarinet ensemble. It’s supposed to be a sonic model of Manhattan’s fixed quick paced surroundings. Reich composed it in a minimalist fashion, throughout a interval the place he wrote plenty of “counterpoint” experiments. The transcription for saxophone takes digital music impressed by NYC’s hustle and renders it in acoustic devices.
George Gershwin: An American in Paris (1928)
Born in Brooklyn, Gershwin moved to Paris with an already established fashion that fused jazz and symphonic music. He studied with Nadia Boulanger and Maurice Ravel, each of whom inspired his jazzy experimentation. He wrote An American in Paris throughout his keep within the metropolis, and incorporates a number of saxophone elements within the authentic rating. TSC’s Blake Smith organized the work for sax ensemble.
- The live performance takes place June 2 at 7 p.m. on the Faculty Avenue United Church, 542 Faculty Avenue. Entry is by donation/PWYC extra data [HERE].
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Anya Wassenberg is a Toronto Metropolis Editor at Ludwig Van. She is an skilled freelance author, blogger and writing teacher.
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