The Barry Sax Show

The Barry Sax Show. About Tim: Soprano chair of the renowned PRISM Quartet and internationally-acclaimed soloist, Timothy McAllister has been hailed as a “virtuoso…one of the foremost saxophonists of his generation” (The New York Times). Since his solo debut at age sixteen with the Houston Civic Symphony, his career has taken him throughout the world, with solo performances in such venues as Prince Royal Albert Hall in London, the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. McAllister has premiered over 200 new works by today’s most eminent and emerging composers ranging from solo compositions to saxophone quartets and chamber works. In 2009, he appeared as saxophonist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the Gala concert performing the world premiere of Pulitzer Prize and multiple Grammy-winning composer John Adams’ major work, City Noir. In 2017 he performed the work with the famed Berlin Philharmonic, which appeared on the Digital Concert Hall and he recorded for the Berlin Philharmonic’s “John Adams Edition” anthology. In August 2013, McAllister gave the World Premiere of John Adams’ Saxophone Concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the composer in the Sydney Opera House. This work was recorded for Nonesuch Records and the St. Louis Symphony, which won the 2015 GRAMMY Award for Best Orchestral Performance. A dedicated teacher, McAllister spends his summers as a distinguished Valade Fellow/Instructor of Saxophone for the Interlochen Center for the Arts and has served as a Guest Professor at the famed Paris Conservatoire. In 2014 he was appointed Associate Professor of Saxophone at The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance, following the legacies of Larry Teal and Donald Sinta, after holding the same post at Northwestern University, succeeding the legendary Frederick Hemke. Show Notes: Visiting Australia. Getting started in a school band. The wanted to give me a tuba, but the saxophone was the most interesting and coolest instrument. I grew up in a very competitive environment. The level of playing in Texas schools was very high. BMX biking was more important to me than the saxophone. Learning with my first specialist, Chester Rowell. Hearing recordings of classical saxophone for the first time got me hooked. Hearing John Adam's music for the first time. Planning five years ahead, at least. Learning with Donald Sinta. Learning and now teaching at Interlochen summer camp. Hearing Denisov for the first time. The importance of listening to interments besides saxophone. Recording my first album while still a student. The decreasing worth of recording albums. Completing two masters degrees at the same time. Practising can become stressful. If you can play from memory, you really know a piece. Improvisation is pivotal to music making. Working with jazz artists. Prism Quartet. Admiration for Claude Delangle. Teaching at the Paris Conservatoire for the first time. Being happy to play John Adam's forever. We have to make everyone love the saxophone. We are a wonderful saxophone community. A lot of the most widely played orchestral pieces have saxophone now. More bananas, less coffee. When I play, I am thinking about just the spirit of the music and the person who wrote it. Thoughts on recording. I don't want us to miss out on the greatest composers of today writing for the saxophone. Tim McAllister Website

Sue is a D’Addario Woodwinds Artist and a Claude Lakey Endorsee. She was the Assistant Director of the 16th World Saxophone Congress, 2012 and as one of Scotland’s leading contemporary saxophonists she has given UK and Scottish premieres of many new works. She is one half of the McKenzie Sawers Duo who recently released their first CD, “The Coral Sea”, with Delphian Records. Sue is also the leader and founder of the Scottish Saxophone Ensemble who were part of the Made in Scotland Music Showcase, 2013 and the Director of the Scottish Saxophone Academy. She regularly performs with Salsa Celtica and the Glasgow Improvisor’s Orchestra and recently performed with her own band, “Dark Grooves” at the Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival 2013. She was chosen as part of Serious Music’s talent development programme, Air Time, in 2014. Sue also plays in Syntonic with bass player Emma Smith and runs Bitches Brew which promotes female improvising talent. Show Notes: Wanting a saxophone but getting a flute. My first teacher, Mickey Deans. Practising the night before a lesson. Developing a love of sound with teacher Kyle Horch. Lessons can be both positive and negative experiences. Students are often neglecting improvisation. Practising can be chaos. Developing efficiency in practise. Teaching students how to practise. Being told to sound like myself and no-one else. Developing the Scottish Saxophone Ensemble. Taking music to the remote parts of my country. Finding your own voice and acting on it. Developing a distinctive sound to be memorable. Adapting to and managing injuries. The importance of stretching before playing. Organising a World Saxophone Congress. Releasing new albums. Working with composers, including John Harris. Finding more time in a day.

About Arno Bornkamp: Dutch saxophonist Arno Bornkamp (born 1959) is the archetype of the modern virtuoso, feeling equally at home in traditional and contemporary repertoire. Hailed as a lyrical musician with a great sense of performance, Bornkamp studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam with Ed Bogaard. He has won many awards, the 'Silver Laurel of the Concertgebouw' and the 'Netherlands Music Prize' among the most noteworthy. The latter enabled him to go abroad, studying in France with Daniël Deffayet and Jean-Marie Londeix, in Japan with Ryo Noda as well as working with composers such as Luciano Berio and Karlheinz Stockhausen.Since his 1982 solo debut in Rome, performing the 'Concertino da Camera' by Jacques Ibert, he has played more than two hundred concerts with orchestras around the world, including the most important works from the saxophone repertoire in addition to new concerti written especially for him, such as the 'Tallahatchie Concerto' by Jacob TV. In addition to his solo career, chamber music is one of Arno Bornkamp’s great loves. For over thirtyfive years Bornkamp was a member the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet and his duo with pianist Ivo Janssen existed almost as long. The many CDs he has made on various labels since 1990 have garnered national and international praise. On some of these recordings, Bornkamp has taken a certain period of saxophone history and put it under the microscope, on others he highlights a specific composer. Being one of the most important personalities of saxophone in the world, Bornkamp took the initiative to create SAX14, a huge, multidisciplinary saxophone festival in Amsterdam in November 2014, celebrating the 200th birthday of Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the saxophone. Arno Bornkamp is a renowned teacher, leading an international saxophone class at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. In the summer he teaches at various master classes. Show Notes: Getting started in Amsterdam. In two years I had played Ibert with orchestra. Deffayet was my hero. Enriching life enriches music. 35 years of Aurelia Saxophone Quartet. Changing personnel in chamber music. Working with composers. Putting the notes in the right place. Making intonation the priority. Animals don't make mistakes, only human beings.

About Branford Marsalis: Branford Marsalis has stayed the course. From his early acclaim as a saxophonist bringing new energy and new audiences to the jazz art, he has refined and expanded his talents and his horizons as a musician, composer, bandleader and educator – a 21st-century mainstay of artistic excellence. Growing up in the rich environment of New Orleans, his first instrument, the clarinet, gave way to the alto and then the tenor and soprano saxophones when the teenage Branford began working in local bands. A growing fascination with jazz as he entered college gave him the basic tools to obtain his first major jobs, with trumpet legend Clark Terry and alongside his brother Wynton in Art Blakey’s legendary Jazz Messengers. When the brothers left to form the Wynton Marsalis Quintet, the world of uncompromising acoustic jazz was invigorated. Branford formed his quartet in 1986 and, with a few minor interruptions in the early years, has sustained the unit as his primary means of expression. Branford has not confined his music to the quartet context, however. Classical music inhabits a growing portion of Branford's musical universe. A frequent soloist with classical ensembles, Branford has become increasingly sought after as a featured soloist with such acclaimed orchestras as the Chicago, Detroit, Düsseldorf, and North Carolina Symphonies and the New York Philharmonic. Branford’s screen credits include the original music for Mo’ Better Blues and acting roles in School Daze and Throw Momma from the Train. Branford has also shared his knowledge as an educator, forming extended teaching relationships at Michigan State, San Francisco State and North Carolina Central Universities and conducting workshops at sites throughout the United States and the world. As for other public stages, Branford spent a period touring with Sting, collaborated with the Grateful Dead and Bruce Hornsby and served as musical director of the tonight show starring Jay Leno. Some might gauge Branford Marsalis's success by his numerous awards, including three Grammys and (together with his father and brothers) his citation as a jazz master by the national endowment for the arts. To Branford, however, these are only way stations along what continues to be one of the most fascinating and rewarding journeys in the world of music. Show Notes: Growing up in a musical family and a musical city. In New Orleans playing an instrument is cool for kids. There are ridiculous amounts of musicians in New Orleans and they all work. Studying at Berkeley College of Music. Organising musicians for the National Basketball Association half-time show. Building a massive sound vocabulary. Melody should be at the top of the list.  The challenge of music was to be like a chameleon. It’s not music law, it’s music theory. Orchestral appearances were never really part of the plan. There’s only one way to get better at anything, go out and be really bad at it in front of people. I’m in it to play better. I believe that the only way to eliminate mistakes is by making them.  I never met a man that improved by kissing his own ass. Children are more resilient than many adults, if they are allowed to be resilient. You learn how to create sounds that evoke an emotional effect. There’s a lot of music written for the saxophone, I would hesitate to call it great. I’m a nerd, so I’m all about technical mastery, but not at the expense of musical mastery. Everything you learn makes you better. In a niche, you have dedicated yourself to a very limited career. There’s certain things you have to practise do every day. Improvisation is supposed to feel like it’s happening right in front of you, not like it’s meticulously prepared.  I was terrified when I played with the New York Philharmonic. Recording is documenting how I thought about music at a given point in time. Hearing is harder than knowing. You have to be willing to be bad at something for a long time to get good at it....

Asya Fateyeva, a classical saxophonist born on the Crimean peninsula in 1990, has a wide repertoire which includes original works written for her instrument, as well as Baroque, Classical and Romantic pieces which she often arranges herself. In 2014 she became the first woman to reach the final of the prestigious Adolphe Sax International Competition in Belgium. As a winner of the first prize at the German Music Competition in 2012, Asya Fateyeva recorded her debut album of works by Mishat, Ibert, Albright and Decruck. For this project, she was awarded the Best Newcomer ECHO Klassik in 2016. The daughter of a professional footballer, Asya Fateyeva began taking piano lessons at the age of six and saxophone at age 10. Later, she was taught by Professor Margarita Shaposhnikova in Moscow and took masterclasses in Gap, France. Asya moved to Germany in 2004 where she was taught by Daniel Gauthier. Study trips to France, where she was taught by Claude Delangle in Paris and Jean-Denis Michat in Lyon, provided crucial creative inspiration. Fateyeva has performed with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, with the Tchaikovsky Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Ukrainian National Philharmonic, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, the Giuseppe Verdi Symphony Orchestra of Milan and many German orchestras. Show Notes: Concerto soloist after 6 months of lessons. Falling in love with the classical saxophone. Adopting a family to study saxophone. The Russian way of putting the music first. Music and technique are not separate things. Adapting your sound for chamber music. Listening to yourself from an outside perspective. Zooming in on problems. Having confidence to perform from memory. The importance of improvisation to know music more deeply. Inside the laboratory of saxophone events. Giving music everything. The imperfection of beauty. Performing in the state of concentrated calm. Developing a wide range of skills, other than playing. Curiosity, discovery and development.

About Lars Mlekusch: Lars Mlekusch is a saxophonist, conductor and educator. He was appointed a professor of saxophone and chamber music at the Music and Arts University of Vienna at the age of 26, and since 2015 he is the saxophone professor at the Zurich University of the Arts. Lars Mlekusch has performed throughout the world as a soloist, with orchestras or in chamber music. For ten years he was a regular guest saxophonist of the Klangforum Wien and has been the saxophone soloist of the Vienna based ensemble PHACE. He has been invited to teach masterclasses at many renowned institutions such as the Paris Conservatoire, Conservatorium of Amsterdam, Chopin University of Music Warsaw, Royal College of Music London, Bejing Central Conservatory and leading universities across the United States. He has been on the faculties of the European Saxophone University Gap and the Arosa Music Academy. He was a jury member at many international competitions such as the International Adolphe Sax Competition in Dinant, the Jean-Marie Londeix Competition in Bangkok. Following his career as a saxophonist, he is now pursuing a career as a conductor. As such he has appeared at Konzerthaus Wien, the Cité de la Musique Strasbourg and the National Concert Hall Taipei. He is the Artistic Director and conductor of the MIT saxophone ensemble in Taiwan. Lars Mlekusch is the founder and Artistic Director of both the Vienna International Saxfest and the Zurich International Saxfest. He is a Selmer Paris Artist. Show Notes: Starting the saxophone because it is golden, different to the black clarinet. Learning with my teacher's teacher's teacher. Working with Marcus Weiss. Boring scales and a lot about music. Becoming curious about composers. Studying as far away as possible. Master's with Fred Hemke at Northwestern University. Recommending students to study abroad. Private study with Claude Delangle and Arno Bornkamp. Giving masterclasses with Tim McCallister and Christian Wirth. Founding the Vienna Saxophonic Orchestra. Performing withsoloist ensemble Phace. Teaching without being systematic. Living with focal dystonia. Canceling a big concert for the first time. Advancing a career in conducting. Studying with Emilio Pomarico. Improvisation is something significant that every musician should try at least. Keeping kids creative. The subtle art of avoiding answering questions. Remaining in the moment. Dissemination of saxophone knowledge through social and other media.

About Richard Ingham: Richard Ingham has had an extensive career as a performer, composer and educator. He has given solo saxophone recitals and chamber concerts throughout UK, North America, Asia and Europe. Numerous composers have written works have for him, and he has played by invitation at every World Saxophone Congress since 1985 (in Washington DC, Tokyo, Pesaro, Valencia, Montreal, Minneapolis, Ljubljana, Bangkok, St Andrews, Strasbourg and Zagreb). In 2012 was the Artistic Director of the acclaimed 16th World Saxophone Congress in St Andrews, Scotland. He is a Yamaha artist, conducted the National Saxophone Choir of Great Britain for several years and has composed many original works. He studied at the University of York, specialising in clarinet and contemporary music. Later he studied at Leeds Metropolitan University and the University of Leeds, both in aspects of music technology. A brief but inspirational period was spent at Bloomington University, Indiana, studying saxophone with Eugene Rousseau. Richard has been teaching for 40 years, always alongside his performing and composing career. He teaches saxophone (classical and jazz), chamber music performance, jazz performance, and history of 20th-century music. His jazz courses at the University of St Andrews have been running for 24 years. He was the editor and contributing author of the Cambridge Companion to the Saxophone (Cambridge University Press, 1999), widely regarded as the leading book on the subject. Show Notes: Informal lessons to get started. Cross boundaries and dipping toes into different kinds of music. Subtle marketing from a man of great integrity. Summer courses in Bloomington, Indiana with Eugene Rousseau. The UK is more encouraging than destructive. The influence of contemporary clarinet music. Examination boards influencing the development of the UK saxophone. Kids growing up would listen to pop music and that's where they would hear a saxophone. Playing Boulez's Dialogue de l'Ombre Double Having a composing break for almost 20 years. A career as a series of accidents. Teaching at the University of Aberdeen. The development of the saxophone in China. Having time to prepare before stepping on stage.

Gerard McChrystal comes from Derry, Northern Ireland. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and later at The Guildhall School, London and with Frederick Hemke at Northwestern University in Chicago. Gerard has performed in over 35 countries, recorded numerous albums and has worked with orchestras including Philharmonia, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, National Symphony of Ireland, Stuttgart Staatsorchester and the Orchestra of San Francisco Ballet. Gerard was artistic director of the British Saxophone Congress in London and he has served as an adjudicator at the 5th Adolphe Sax International Saxophone Competition in Dinant, Belgium. Gerard is Professor of Saxophone at Trinity Laban Conservatoire, London. Show Notes: A lot of my career was an accident. I was a really serious clarinet player but I was always number two. I loved to play along with my dad’s record player, especially Baker Street. Working with John Harle at the Guildhall School of Music. Studying with Frederick Hemke at Northwestern University. It was tough growing up in Derry, Northern Ireland. I thought I knew everything and I knew virtually nothing. My life has been a beautiful zig-zag. I wish what I knew then what I know now. To practise you have to get rid of your ego. I learn things under tempo and let adrenaline take me over the line. You must a program a piece in a concert for a reason. I like pieces that are virtually impossible to play, I like the challenge. I have played Ku Ku over 100 times, it is a real party piece. The first performance of a piece is just an introduction. Make sure that you play pieces that you really know. We are running a program with 50% male and 50% female composers. I love getting guests in to work with my students. A love of travelling and touring, food, the larger human experiences. John Harle’s contribution to the saxophone in the UK. I like to be antisocial before walking on stage. The great energy of the Apollo Quartet. We are in trouble when we don’t know we are making mistakes.

Carrie Koffman is Associate Professor of Saxophone at The Hartt School at the University of Hartford and Lecturer of Saxophone at the Yale School of Music. She has appeared at numerous World Saxophone Congresses, the SaxArt International Saxophone Festivals in Italy, the International Clarinet and Saxophone Festival in China and several North American Saxophone Alliance National Conventions. Carrie is a graduate with high honours from the University of Michigan where she studied with Donald Sinta and also the University of North Texas where she studied with James Riggs and Eric Nestler. Carrie regularly appears as a chamber musician, and clinician and has been a featured soloist with numerous orchestras and bands including the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra and the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. Committed to new music, Carrie has commissioned and premiered around 50 compositions. Her recording projects comprise twelve commercially available CDs, and she has an ongoing recording and performing series entitled "Pink Ink" that is dedicated to promoting the music of living women composers. Show Notes: Getting started playing tuba parts on the contra-alto clarinet. Learning with Donald Sinta at the University of Michigan. The most charismatic person met to this day. Building playing from the ground up. Studying jazz improvisation as a classical saxophonist. Getting jobs early. Interpretation as a function of improvisation. Juggling multiple teaching positions. Changing practice routines as your playing matures. Learning and then teaching Kripalu Yoga. Using Pranayama breathing techniques in playing. Touring internationally with the Transcontinental Saxophone Quartet. Working with living composers. Removing tension from playing for a long and healthy career. 50% technique, 50% repertoire approach to practising. The importance (and possible addiction) of recording. Skydiving to learn about letting go.

After graduating from Hanover University of Music and Drama, German saxophonist Sebastian Pottmeier continued his studies in Bordeaux, France in the prestigious class of Marie Bernadette Charrier and Jean-Marie Londeix. He has appeared at several world saxophone congresses including performances with the International Saxophone Ensemble under the direction of Jean-Marie Londeix. Since 2003, Sebastian has taught at the University of Music in Cologne, Germany. Sebastian has built a significant career in chamber music. For 15 years he has been a founding member of Alliage Quintett, one of the most creative and successful ensembles in Europe. A consummate musician with significant tours and broadcasts, Sebastian has recorded a dozen chamber music albums and continues to perform throughout the world. Show Notes: I played my first concert without having heard the saxophone played by a professional saxophone player. Music comes first. Don't take yourself so important. The important is not you; it's the music. Students have their time taken with too many activities. You must help students discover what they can do after their studies. Chamber music is an excellent career path. There are not enough jobs for music teachers in Germany. I could never play a note without musical interest. Scales are not the best way to warm up. Playing without quality breathing is nothing. I don't practise anything that I did as a student anymore. Baritone saxophone is my first choice. It is very important for members of a chamber music group to really know each other. We were bored with traditional saxophone quartet repertoire. We try to be serious, even if we are not so serious. Music is individual and personal. If I just had one hour to practise, I would just play low notes. The worst case is music is without phrasing. To find a concert, you need a recording. Working on the combination with an acoustic instrument and electronic.

Canadian Daniel Gauthier has performed throughout the world as a concerto soloist and as soprano saxophonist with the internationally acclaimed group, Alliage Quintet. He founded this ensemble in 2004, and together they have recorded seven albums including several for SONY Classical. After studying in Montreal and Bordeaux, Daniel Gauthier completed his studies in Canada earning his doctoral degree.   He has presented masterclasses in major European music capitals and has also served as a jury member in many international saxophone competitions.   Daniel has been an elected member of the International Saxophone Committee, he held the first saxophone professorship in Germany and since 2003 has been teaching at the Cologne Faculty of Music. During Daniel’s recent tour with Alliage in Australia, I was able to catch up with him for an entertaining conversation full of laughs and insight. Show Notes: I came to the saxophone in a completely different way. A music lesson was $3. I met Jean-Marie Londeix at a summer camp. I moved to France for one year. I was selling croissants during the day and in the evening learning Denisov by memory. I decided to go back to Canada and to maybe even quit the music. I got the job as the first saxophone professor in Germany. Three cultures are all part of my way to make music now. I was very focused on new music, contemporary music because Londeix was very forceful about that. We are musicians because we want to go on stage and not play in our living room for ourselves. It was not an option for me to repeat what other peoples have done. It’s more interesting for me to work in a group. Try to find what you are and what you want to do. Jean-Marie Londeix is the one who opened to a new dimension of the repertoire. If you have something to say, be patient enough to wait until that time comes, and it will happen. Touring with Sabine Meyer. I would like very much to get some original repertoire for the quintet.

Dragan Sremec is a professor of saxophone and the vice-dean at the Zagreb Music Academy. He is the founder of the Zagreb Saxophone Quartet, and for many years he was the principal saxophonist with the Zagreb Philharmonic and the Croatian Radio Television Symphony Orchestra. Dragan was the first ever graduate in saxophone from the Zagreb Academy in 1981 and went on to study in Paris with Daniel Deffayet and with Dr Eugene Rousseau at the IU School of Music. He has performed as a soloist and as a member of the Zagreb Saxophone Quartet in the prestigious halls of many European countries, the USA, South America and Asia. He played with all major orchestras in Croatia and Slovenia, with the Orchestra of the French Republican Guard, the US Navy Band and many more. He made many solo recordings for Croatian Radio and Television, and with his quartet, he has recorded 11 albums. He has premiered over fifty works by foremost Croatian and Slovenian composers, and currently, Dragan is artistic director of the 2018 World Saxophone Congress, hosted in Zagreb, Croatia. In this episode: My life is a series of coincidences. Too old for violin and piano, the guitar is already full of candidates. Saxophone, play the saxophone. My professor Nochta was a great teacher and musician. I got a Fulbright grant to study with Eugene Rousseau. Deffayet was very polite, very gentle with me. Be open to knowledge. The bloody war started. Almost 30 years with the Zagreb Saxophone Quartet. When you practise a lot, you don’t need a lot of warm-ups. Just practise. If you don’t have a goal, you’re just stalling. The World Saxophone Congress. Avoiding a secluded kind of saxophone sect that nobody knows.

A musician of international repute, French saxophonist and composer Philippe Geiss has given concerts and masterclasses all over the world. Excelling in diverse disciplines, he has mastered a repertoire that extends from classical to improvised music. He is in great demand as a composer, with a catalogue ranging from solo pieces to symphonic repertoire. He is published by Billaudot, Robert Martin and Leduc. Philippe is Professor at the Strasbourg Conservatory and the Strasbourg Superior Music Academy / Haute École des Arts du Rhin, as well as a guest professor at the Senzoku Gakuen College of Tokyo. He is a member of the scientific committee of LabEx-GREAM at Strasbourg University. Philippe Geiss is a valued member of the International Saxophone Committee, in which role he masterminded the artistic direction of SaxOpen – the 17th Congress and World Festival of the Saxophone – in Strasbourg in 2015. In this wide-ranging interview, listen to Philippe describe how he wanted to play the trombone and his mother bought him a saxophone In France, students learn the saxophone from age 6. Kids should have fun practising and learn something at the same time. We need to find some way to have people motivated to keep practising. The very boring mechanical exercises. My teacher's 12 copy-paste students. Ivan Roth, had fun playing jazz. Jerry Bergonzi called me crazy. Last teacher was Jean-Marie Londeix. You learn to master your body, your mind and your stress. Weeks really working hard at a restaurant, and after that, I decided to stay with the saxophone. You have to decide what you will practise because you do not have enough time. Taking care of my body. Some people play better when they read, some other people play better when they memorise. Tips on coming back from a jazz embouchure to a classical embouchure. Five years with Zulu musicians from South Africa. Learning and studying traditional music from different countries. Travelling makes you understand that we are really on a small planet. You have to learn to listen, to sample, and to respect different origins and traditions. For a long period time, I didn't think about my career. Doing around 250 concerts each year. The first thing about improvisation, especially teaching improvisation, is don't say improvisation. Things worked well because I learned to trust my colleagues. Open your mind to different cultures and don't only practise your saxophone.

Lev Pupis is a Slovenian saxophonist, teacher at the Conservatory in Ljubljana and is a senior lecturer at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz, Austria. After a brilliant graduation in 1998 at the University of Music in Vienna, he studied saxophone in France with Jean-Yves Fourmeau and Vincent David. Lev is a multifaceted and versatile artist. He plays both as a soloist and as co-founder of the 4saxess quartet. He is the artistic director of Emona Music Festival, the international woodwind competition and runs the internationally recognised AS Festival each year in the scenic town of Bled, Slovenia. He has performed as soloist with orchestras in Graz, Ljubljana, Maribor, Belgrade, and Vienna and since 2015 he has been an elected member of the International Saxophone Committee. In this episode, you will hear: why starting saxophone was a coincidence - why nobody liked to hear Lev’s performances with piano - Not a typical education for a classical saxophonist - Practising like hell in early years. - Studying abroad is an essential step. Curiosity led to Gap, the European saxophone summer university. - In Gap, I learned was that I’m a nobody. We have to leave the nest to really grow up. - Respect is my secret weapon. - Is the saxophone a tool or a toy? - Our country is very, very, very small, but the sax community is big. - Thoughts on memorisation. - The romantic style is my most natural language of expression. - Opportunity and intuition, they are my kind of words. - Be brave. - If we share music, not just show music, then we can really go far. - An obligation to leave a trace on the saxophone world. - The Slovenian saxophone school is recognised throughout the world. - The importance of collaboration. - If we don’t understand the mistake, that is the mistake. - Never think that you are the best. - The saxophone is really the instrument of the future, and its time is still to come.

Soloist, researcher, and pedagogue, Claude Delangle is one of the greatest contemporary saxophonists and he stands out as the master of the French saxophone. Considered a profound interpreter, he also has enriched the saxophone repertoire by collaborating with the most renowned composers, including Berio, Boulez, Takemitsu, and Piazzolla as well as supporting many younger composers. Since 1986, he has been saxophonist with Ensemble intercontemporain, and has appeared as soloist with prestigious orchestras worldwide including London BBC, Radio France, Radio of Finland, Berlin Philharmonic and the Australian Chamber Orchestra amongst many others. Passionate for his instrument, he has worked closely with Musical Acoustic Laboratories of the University of Paris 7. The results of his research on the specific acoustics of the saxophone have helped him further his collaboration with living composers. He has recorded many albums for BIS, Deutsche Grammophon, Harmonia Mundi, Erato and Verany including popular repertoire through to the most avant-garde works. After obtaining several 1st prizes at the Paris Conservatoire, Claude Delangle was appointed professor in 1988, where he has created the most prestigious saxophone class in the world. Learn more about Claude Delangle: He was happy because at 9 years, he was too old to play the violin. On hearing the saxophone for the first time - I have to play that instrument. When we grow up with something, it feels natural. My teacher Daniel Deffayet did not play during lessons. Serge Bichon’s teaching was very tough. I had been told that I would not learn anything at the Paris Conservatoire. Students today are exposed to too many ideas too early. Sometimes I try to sing some tunes I listen to in an elevator. Began teaching at the Paris Conservatoire at age 31. The main job of a teacher is just listening, very, very carefully. 10 years to begin something, 20 years to develop it and 30 years to realise that it could be done differently. We shouldn’t be proud but we should be confident. What I like most about travel is meeting new students. Try everything with no expectations. Students play music that is too difficult too early. When we love something, we learn very easily. Playing in a duo for 40 years. Learning the most by making recordings. Music is the art of time. We now have the time to experiment with new things. Working with composers has been the key point of my career. I use improvisation in teaching. Love of technology. The biggest mistake one can make is to believe there is only one right way. Practising as little a possible on the day of a performance. When you know something from memory, you just know it. The Solitary Saxophone recording. Learning music is practising and playing chamber music. Working with a dancer. The human part of my life has been the most important.