Preparing to Celebrate our 35th

The Washington Saxophone Quartet was formed in 1976 and is beginning to make plans for some kind of celebration to mark our 35th Anniversary. One thing that immediately comes to mind is to perform as much as possible! That sounds easy enough. And since performance seasons are often mutable or at least varied according to how one thinks of the "Year" vs. "Season", we can begin the festivities in 2010-2011 season and continue right through 2011-2012. Why not stretch it out!

There are many other things related to our anniversary to celebrate, so we'll keep thinking and look forward to ideas.

So to be bold, if anyone is reading this and would like to book our quartet for those aforementioned seasons, or anytime for that matter, we're ready.

Please contact us: wsaxq@aol.com

Visit the website: www.wsaxq.com

Our repertoire is broad and deep, with new pieces added all the time, from the earliest music to the newest.

We look forward to hearing from you...

Recent Concert

Sunday, January 31...a very enthusiastic crowd braved the aftermath of a fairly substantial snow storm, to attend our afternoon concert at St. Peter's Episcopal Church of Arlington.

It was program with many contrasts, including music by Michael Nyman, Samuel Barber, Gyorgy Ligeti...as well as original works for saxophone quartet by Jean Absil (mid 20th century Belgian) and Bob Mintzer (contemporary American).

We also collaborated with the church's fine organist, Emily Koons, to perform a transcription by Telemann. The five of us filled the church with big sounds, and we hope to do it again soon.

The audience enjoyed the variety and had lots of questions following the program. Some were hearing a sax quartet for the first time and wanted to know why it was something they were not aware of already. That always starts a great exchange of ideas about music and the saxophone. Many were intrigued by the broad spectrum of sounds they heard and the range in repertoire. And we also gained more fans from the choral side of things when we told them about our various collaborations with Washington area choirs.

Some in the audience had heard our group on CD but not in-concert. They were pleased with the bigger sounds that can't really be achieved on the recording. A live concert is always something to be savored.

We're always looking for ways to bring "new ears" to our music and for that matter, any saxophone quartet's music.

We're always looking for the day when the surprise factor about the saxophone quartet itself, will not be such a surprise.

At the same time, it's always wonderful to surprise someone!