[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”4.16″ global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” global_colors_info=”{}”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ custom_padding=”|||” global_colors_info=”{}” custom_padding__hover=”|||”][et_pb_text _builder_version=”4.17.4″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n
story by Kyle MacMillan<\/em><\/p>\n For much of his career, saxophonist Tim McAllister<\/a> admits being a little jealous of clarinetists who could draw on a string of major works written for their instrument from composers like Mozart and Brahms to Aaron Copland and John Corigliano in the 20th century.<\/p>\n While the internationally known musician is thrilled to have concertos for his instrument by such notables as Alexander Glazunov and Jacques Ibert, historically there has been little of importance from American composers. But that changed when John Adams\u2019 Saxophone Concerto debuted in 2013 and Corigliano finished his contribution to the form seven years later.<\/p>\n \u201cYou could start to make the argument that these two pieces would be in the conversation as the great American concertos for our instrument,\u201d said McAllister. And he ought to know, considering he served as soloist for both premieres.<\/p>\n On July 14<\/a>, Colorado Music Festival audiences will get a chance to hear him in the work that in many ways set the stage for Adams\u2019 Saxophone Concerto \u2013 City Noir,<\/em> a symphonic creation that the veteran California composer wrote in 2009 prominently featuring the alto saxophone. It will be conducted by Adams, who is serving as the festival\u2019s composer-in-residence<\/a> and co-curator of its Music of Today series<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe saxophone\u2019s use is really crucial to the flavor of that piece,\u201d McAllister said, \u201cbeing this love letter to Los Angeles cinema and the gritty, noir-film culture of the \u201840s and \u201850s. The saxophone for [John Adams] is emblematic of that. And to put the saxophone front and center also meant he was going to capitalize on all the things that it can do.\u201d<\/p>\n McAllister, who is a professor of saxophone at the University of Michigan, splits his time in part between teaching and performing with the PRISM Quartet<\/a>. He also travels worldwide as a classical saxophone soloist \u2013 a rarity compared to the abundance of such artists on the piano, violin, and cello.<\/p>\n During his 30 years of performing, the saxophonist has premiered more than 250 works, including those by such well-known composers as William Bolcom, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Gunther Schuller, and Chen Yi.<\/p>\n McAllister served as the soloist when the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, who had just taken over as music director, debuted City Noir<\/em> in October 2009, as well as for an American tour with the orchestra a year later, including a stop at New York\u2019s Lincoln Center. In all, he has performed the piece more than 50 times, including a concert in January with the Seattle Symphony with Adams on the podium.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he really does believe that the piece has aged well, and I would agree,\u201d McAllister said of the composer. \u201cIt\u2019s taking on a second wave of life now all these years later.\u201d<\/p>\n According to Adams\u2019 notes<\/a>, City Noir<\/em> was inspired by Kevin Starr\u2019s multi-volume history of California, especially the Black Dahlia<\/em> chapter of the Embattled Dreams<\/em><\/a> volume that looks back at the 1940s and \u201850s via the era\u2019s hyperbolic journalism and \u201cdark, eerie chiaroscuro\u201d of the noir films of that time.<\/p>\n In many classical works in which the saxophone is featured, such as Bol\u00e9ro<\/em> or Pictures at an Exhibition<\/em>, the composers tend to display only its slow and melancholy side, the style of playing that they heard in the 1910s and \u201820s. \u201cThey\u2019re lovely,\u201d McAllister said of these older works, \u201cand they are great opportunities to make music with such great ensembles, but they certainly under-utilize the full potential of the instrument.\u201d<\/p>\n While City Noir<\/em> calls for a soloist with what McAllister calls \u201cjazz leanings,\u201d it also clearly requires a classically trained virtuoso. When he first laid eyes on the score, he quickly realized it contained the most taxing saxophone part he had ever encountered.<\/p>\n \u201cI took it on my shoulders to really nail that part,\u201d the saxophonist said, \u201cbut it was pretty overwhelming at the time. This was a full unleashing of what the saxophone can be, and John knocked it out of the park.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_cta button_url=”https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/concert\/john-adams-timo-andres-world-premiere\/” url_new_window=”on” button_text=”Buy Tickets for July 14″ _builder_version=”4.17.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}”]<\/p>\n Hear Tim McAllister perform John Adams’\u00a0City Noir\u00a0<\/em>at the Festival on July 14, with John Adams conducting.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_cta][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On July 14, Festival audiences will get a chance to hear Tim McAllister perform City Noir, a symphonic creation that John Adams wrote in 2009, prominently featuring the alto saxophone. It will be conducted by Adams, who is serving as the Festival\u2019s composer-in-residence and co-curator of its Music of Today series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":271937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" story by Kyle MacMillan<\/em><\/p> For much of his career, saxophonist Tim McAllister admits being a little jealous of clarinetists who could draw on a string of major works written for their instrument from composers like Mozart and Brahms to Aaron Copland and John Corigliano in the 20th century.<\/p> While the internationally known musician is thrilled to have concertos for his instrument by such notables as Alexander Glazunov and Jacques Ibert, historically there has been little of importance from American composers. But that changed when John Adams\u2019 Saxophone Concerto debuted in 2013 and Corigliano finished his contribution to the form seven years later.<\/p> \u201cYou could start to make the argument that these two pieces would be in the conversation as the great American concertos for our instrument,\u201d said McAllister. And he ought to know, considering he served as soloist for both premieres.<\/p> On July 14<\/a>, Colorado Music Festival audiences will get a chance to hear him in the work that in many ways set the stage for Adams\u2019 Saxophone Concerto \u2013 City Noir,<\/em> a symphonic creation that the veteran California composer wrote in 2009 prominently featuring the alto saxophone. It will be conducted by Adams, who is serving as the festival\u2019s composer-in-residence<\/a> and co-curator of its Music of Today series<\/a>.<\/p> \u201cThe saxophone\u2019s use is really crucial to the flavor of that piece,\u201d McAllister said, \u201cbeing this love letter to Los Angeles cinema and the gritty, noir-film culture of the \u201840s and \u201850s. The saxophone for [John Adams] is emblematic of that. And to put the saxophone front and center also meant he was going to capitalize on all the things that it can do.\u201d<\/p> McAllister, who is a professor of saxophone at the University of Michigan, splits his time in part between teaching and performing with the PRISM Quartet<\/a>. He also travels worldwide as a classical saxophone soloist \u2013 a rarity compared to the abundance of such artists on the piano, violin, and cello. McAllister served as the soloist when the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, who had just taken over as music director, debuted City Noir<\/em> in October 2009, as well as for an American tour with the orchestra a year later, including a stop at New York\u2019s Lincoln Center. In all, he has performed the piece more than 50 times, including a concert in January with the Seattle Symphony with Adams on the podium.<\/p> \u201cI think he really does believe that the piece has aged well, and I would agree,\u201d McAllister said of the composer. \u201cIt\u2019s taking on a second wave of life now all these years later.\u201d<\/p> According to Adams\u2019 notes<\/a>, City Noir<\/em> was inspired by Kevin Starr\u2019s multi-volume history of California, especially the Black Dahlia<\/em> chapter of the Embattled Dreams<\/em><\/a> volume that looks back at the 1940s and \u201850s via the era\u2019s hyperbolic journalism and \u201cdark, eerie chiaroscuro\u201d of the noir films of that time.<\/p> In many classical works in which the saxophone is featured, such as Bol\u00e9ro<\/em> or Pictures at an Exhibition<\/em>, the composers tend to display only its slow and melancholy side, the style of playing that they heard in the 1910s and \u201820s. \u201cThey\u2019re lovely,\u201d McAllister said of these older works, \u201cand they are great opportunities to make music with such great ensembles, but they certainly under-utilize the full potential of the instrument.\u201d<\/p> While City Noir<\/em> calls for a soloist with what McAllister calls \u201cjazz leanings,\u201d it also clearly requires a classically trained virtuoso. When he first laid eyes on the score, he quickly realized it contained the most taxing saxophone part he had ever encountered.<\/p> \u201cI took it on my shoulders to really nail that part,\u201d the saxophonist said, \u201cbut it was pretty overwhelming at the time. This was a full unleashing of what the saxophone can be, and John knocked it out of the park.\"\u00a0<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[382],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-271933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coloradomusicfestival.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
During his 30 years of performing, the saxophonist has premiered more than 250 works, including those by such well-known composers as William Bolcom, Jennifer Higdon, Libby Larsen, Gunther Schuller, and Chen Yi.<\/p>