Our New Website:
We have a new website which we're very excited about as we plan for upcoming performances. As you look through the various pages, we would love from you. Visit the Contact Us page and let us you what you think.
Looking forward to performing...
Rich Kleinfeldt,
Washington Saxophone Quartet
Wednesday, May 20, 2020
Friday, May 1, 2020
WSaxQ During the Pandemic
Like everyone, we are staying at home and hope to rehearse and perform concerts soon. We were able to get more than a little boost when our newest CD "Looking Bach: Baroque and Before was featured in April on Classical WETA FM in Washington. That in turn resulted in a very good listener response and CD sales. While we have time (lots of it right now) we are working on a new website.
We're also always interested in new repertoire and this is a good time to acquire new works and pieces that are new to us.
Our hope is that our fellow musicians stay healthy and safe and we reenter some sort of normalcy and all return to performing again.
We have concerts planned for November and beyond and we hope to see you and hear from you.
Stay in Touch
Rich Kleinfeldt
and the Washington Saxophone Quartet
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
The New Season … 2016 and beyond!
The Washington Saxophone Quartet is excited to be looking ahead at our 4oth Season of making music together in 2016. It doesn’t seem like 40 years and we certainly don’t feel any older!
It’s the music. It always has been about presenting performances as good as we are able. And for our programs we have been fortunate to find a mix of repertoire that never seems to end. There is always something fresh and exciting about the music…whether it’s a work that we’ve played over the past 40 years or a newly commissioned piece composed just for us, the opportunities for programming are almost endless.
We look forward to performing throughout the coming season and hope to broaden our reach even more. This past year has been great in that regard, with more of our music broadcast nationally and an ever widening recognition of our work. We also have five CDs to date and are planning a new recording for the upcoming year. And we are looking forward to performing at least one new commission in the coming season.
We’re also planning our tours and look forward to new venues as well as returning to locations we’ve been to in the past.
All of it keeps us going and we look forward to more of it all.
Feel free to contact us: 703-973-1336 or wsaxq@aol.com
Any and all ideas are welcome.
Rich Kleinfeldt,member/manager
Monday, September 1, 2014
The Upcoming Season
We're excited about the new season (2014-15) as we the near the 40th year of performing as the Washington Saxophone Quartet in 2016. This year (2014) is the 200th Anniversary of the Birth of Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone. His exact birthdate is November 6, which just happens to be the same date for John Philip Sousa. We just happen to have an arrangement of his greatest march, The Stars and Strips Forever. Always a good crowd pleaser!
We kicked off the season and Sax's birthday in February at The Barns at Wolf Trap with a program celebrating the instrument and its versatility in various genres.
This fall, we'll continue with that celebration featuring works old and new from Belgium, France and the United States ... all important countries in the saxophone's development. We'll also bring back some favorites that the quartet has enjoyed in the past.
Below is the schedule at this point. Hope to see you at our concerts!! We'll be updating on our website http://www.wsaxq.com
We kicked off the season and Sax's birthday in February at The Barns at Wolf Trap with a program celebrating the instrument and its versatility in various genres.
This fall, we'll continue with that celebration featuring works old and new from Belgium, France and the United States ... all important countries in the saxophone's development. We'll also bring back some favorites that the quartet has enjoyed in the past.
Below is the schedule at this point. Hope to see you at our concerts!! We'll be updating on our website http://www.wsaxq.com
WSaxQ Dates 2014-15
October 12, 19, (Sundays) 2014 WMPA Flagello "Concerto Grosso"
(Oct 12) The George Washington Masonic National Memorial (VA) at 3 pm
(Oct 19) The Church of the Epiphany (DC) at 3 pm
Nov. 16 (Sunday) Falls Church Episcopal afternoon concert, 4:00PM
115 E. Fairfax Street
Falls Church, VA 22046
January 25, 2015 (Sunday) at Syndenstricker United Meth. Church, Springfield 3:00PM
8508 Hooes Rd, Springfield, VA 22153
Feb 8, 2015 (Sunday) at St. Patrick's Episcopal Church, Falls Church (Odeon Series) 4:00PM
3241 Brush Dr, Falls Church, VA 22042
March 14, 2015 (Saturday) at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Alexandria 7:30PM
8009 Fort Hunt Rd, Alexandria, VA 22308
March 18,19, 2015 (Wednesday/Thursday) Virginia Beach, Sandler Center for the Perf Arts.
School Program and Evening Concert
Sandler Center for the Performing Arts is located at 201 Market Street (adjacent to the Westin Hotel) in Virginia Beach, Virginia 23462
Saturday, January 11, 2014
Happy New Year
Yes, Happy 2014!!
A blog is difficult to keep current. I look some of these posts from the past couple of years and I want to start over from scratch! So a little house cleaning is in order and it will happen.
In the meantime, 2014 is here and the Washington Saxophone Quartet is looking forward to concerts that will celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone. We will kick off the year with a program on February 7 at the Barns at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia.
For details/tickets you can go visit their website: http://www.wolftrap.org/Barns/Discovery_Series.aspx
The music ranges from a piece from 1879 by Caryl Florio, the first originalAmerican work for saxophone quartet and a work by Jean Baptiste Singelee ... likely the first original composition for quartet published in 1857.
Lot's of other music is on the program, which can be seen at the Wolf Trap website.
We'll be in Florida in March for a couple of concerts in Fort Myers.
There are often changes and additions throughout the season so keep in touch and we look forward to seeing you at the concert!
Visit our calendar for details at www.wsaxq.com
A blog is difficult to keep current. I look some of these posts from the past couple of years and I want to start over from scratch! So a little house cleaning is in order and it will happen.
In the meantime, 2014 is here and the Washington Saxophone Quartet is looking forward to concerts that will celebrate the 200th Anniversary of the birth of Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone. We will kick off the year with a program on February 7 at the Barns at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia.
For details/tickets you can go visit their website: http://www.wolftrap.org/Barns/Discovery_Series.aspx
The music ranges from a piece from 1879 by Caryl Florio, the first originalAmerican work for saxophone quartet and a work by Jean Baptiste Singelee ... likely the first original composition for quartet published in 1857.
Lot's of other music is on the program, which can be seen at the Wolf Trap website.
We'll be in Florida in March for a couple of concerts in Fort Myers.
There are often changes and additions throughout the season so keep in touch and we look forward to seeing you at the concert!
Visit our calendar for details at www.wsaxq.com
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
New Christmas CD
It's a busy time...playing many good programs and we've just released our new Christmas CD, "Tis the Season: Celebrate with WSaxQ."
We're very pleased with the sound and the selections. It's been years in the making, planning on what to record and how we would record it! That doesn't seem like a huge decision, but when you have 4 opinions about these things, it takes time...and it did.
The result is an album of seasonal music, with old favorites and new surprises, 26 selections…including Greensleeves,
The Coventry Carol, Dances from the Nutcracker, There is a Flower, I Wonder as I Wander, In the Bleak Midwinter,
On Christmas Night, Sleepers Wake!, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, I Saw Three Ships, The Holly and the Ivy,
And All in the Morning, and many more.
We're also very pleased to have recorded it locally at the Airshow Studio in Tacoma Park, MD with Charlie Pilzer, engineering and master. That experience was great.
So we look forward to performing a bit of it at our next concert on Dec. 4.
More later...
Happy Holidays!
We're very pleased with the sound and the selections. It's been years in the making, planning on what to record and how we would record it! That doesn't seem like a huge decision, but when you have 4 opinions about these things, it takes time...and it did.
The result is an album of seasonal music, with old favorites and new surprises, 26 selections…including Greensleeves,
The Coventry Carol, Dances from the Nutcracker, There is a Flower, I Wonder as I Wander, In the Bleak Midwinter,
On Christmas Night, Sleepers Wake!, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, I Saw Three Ships, The Holly and the Ivy,
And All in the Morning, and many more.
We're also very pleased to have recorded it locally at the Airshow Studio in Tacoma Park, MD with Charlie Pilzer, engineering and master. That experience was great.
So we look forward to performing a bit of it at our next concert on Dec. 4.
More later...
Happy Holidays!
Thursday, June 23, 2011
June...
This is a time of planning, a time for discussions about what to perform and what kinds of programs will be best for certain venues and situations. Discussions always center around how the music will be perceived, with the underlying assumption that we (the quartet) already like the music in question.
I just read an interview with the members of the American Brass Quintet, and ensemble that recently celebrated it's 50th Anniversary! A great accomplishment. They continue to do well and have carved out a combination of teaching/performing/recording that would make any group envious.
Our saxophone quartet is celebrating its 35th Anniversary.
The sound of a brass quintet is better known than that of a saxophone quartet. In fact, the sound of a brass group doesn't really get confused with any other group. Saxophones need to make a stronger presence, because the sound they make is not well known. Indeed, many people hearing a recording of a saxophone quartet for the first time, often think they are hearing some other combination of instruments. It is a sound that is regularly confused!
So, with all that in mind, the saxophone quartet has an added concern. If potential audiences and venue presenters have never heard a saxophone quartet before, what kind of music is best suited for that situation. It all seems very basic and simple, but the reality is that opinions and attitudes are not often based on logical premises. Many people make decisions without ample information, and in the case of a saxophone quartet, the process of whether to book a quartet is often mired in misconceptions.
What would you like to hear? Do you like familiar sounds or new sounds? Is contemporary music the most important thing in programming? Have you ever heard a saxophone quartet before?
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