From the USA we welcome Grammy award-winning saxophonist Tim McAllister and pianist Liz Ames, showcasing music from their most recent albums ‘Project Encore’ & ‘Westland’.
5:00pm Pre-concert Early Bird meal at La Casa Mia (not included in the ticket)
Why not make an evening of it and book your pre-concert dinner at La Casa Mia who are kindly helping to sponsor the concert series
Programme
6:30pm Doors open
7:00: Spotlight Concert
Music performed by talented young people from Sandbach
7:30 Intermission
Art Exhibition by Sandbach Art Club, Refreshments
8:00 Main Concert
Obstacle Illusion (2022). Zoe Cutler (b.1996)
Lilac Tears (2022). Jennifer Jolley (b.1981)
Painting With Knives (2022). Andre Myers (b.1973)
Elegy (2021). Marianne Ploger (b.1953)
Discordant Metamorphosis on Themes of a Fractal Nature (2021). Corey Dundee (b.1991)
Respectfully Yours (2015). Andy Scott (b.1966)
Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano (2002/2015). Andy Scott
MHP (2007). Andy Scott
Saxophonist TIMOTHY McALLISTER has been hailed as an “exemplary soloist…with wondrous dexterity” (Gramophone Magazine), “a virtuoso, one of the foremost saxophonists of his generation” (The New York Times) and “a titan of contemporary music and the instrument, in general” (The Cleveland Plain Dealer). He is one of today’s premier wind soloists, a member of the 2018 GRAMMY® Award-winning PRISM Quartet, and a champion of contemporary music credited with over 40 recordings and 200 premieres of new compositions by eminent and emerging composers worldwide.
His rise to international fame came in 2009 with his celebrated work in John Adams’s City Noir, filmed as part of Gustavo Dudamel’s inaugural concert as Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the World Premiere of John Adams’s Saxophone Concerto in August 2013 with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the composer in the Sydney Opera House. Subsequent performances included the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and the New World Symphony, among many others.
As part of the 70th Birthday celebrations worldwide honoring Adams in 2017, he performed the Saxophone Concerto with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra at the Concertgebouw, Orchestre National de Lyon, Indianapolis Symphony, along with other performances and recordings of Adams’s music, including City Noir, with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, and the Berlin Philharmonic.
To date he has appeared with over forty of the world’s top orchestras and ensembles in twenty-five countries, and he has the distinction of being one of the few saxophonists to appear as soloist in the 127-year history of the BBC Proms concerts. He has recorded for the Nonesuch, ECM, Deutsche Grammophon, Stradivarius, Soundset, Berlin Philharmonic Recordings, Centaur, Albany, Naxos, Equilibrium, New Focus, AUR, Summit, New Dynamic, Parma, XAS/Symphonic, and Innova labels. McAllister won a 2015 GRAMMY® Award with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and David Robertson as soloist on the album “John Adams: City Noir” featuring the Saxophone Concerto. His recording of Kenneth Fuchs’s Saxophone Concerto, RUSH, with JoAnn Falletta and the London Symphony Orchestra was released on NAXOS in August 2018, winning the 2019 GRAMMY® Award as part of the “Best Classical Compendium” category. In April 2022 he presented the World Premiere of Pulitzer and Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano’s Triathlon for Saxophonist and Orchestra with Giancarlo Guerrero and the San Francisco Symphony to widespread critical acclaim.
A revered teacher of his instrument, he is regularly invited to appear at the world’s leading conservatories, music festivals, and summer academies. Previously on the faculty of Northwestern University and other leading institutions, he was appointed Professor of Saxophone at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance in September 2014, succeeding his legendary mentor, the American classical saxophonist Donald Sinta.
LIZ AMES is in great demand as a collaborative pianist deeply passionate about performing and working with instrumentalists, vocalists, and composers.
Recent international appearances include performances in Belgium, England, Spain, the 2012 World Saxophone Congress in St. Andrews, Scotland, the 2015 World Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg, France, the 2008 Contemporary Music Festival in Lima, Peru, and at the 2011 and 2016 International Double Reed Society Conferences. Liz has served as piano coordinator and staff pianist for the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conferences in Tempe, AZ, Urbana-Champaign, IL, and Lubbock,TX, and has been the Navy Saxophone Symposium staff pianist since 2016. While specializing in saxophone literature, Liz continues to pursue projects with a wide variety of instrumentalists and vocalists. She curated a series of concerts during the 2010-2011 season where she performed the entire collection of 114 Songs by Charles Ives with eight singers in Phoenix, Arizona.
Alongside her work as a performer, Liz is devoted to creating piano reductions using extended techniques. She has generated several published reductions including Henry Brant’s Concerto for Saxophone and Orchestra, Peter Schickele’s Concerto for Simply Grand Piano, and multiple concertos and oratorios by Steven Bryant, Joel Puckett, Don Grantham, David Biedenbender, and John Mackey. Her most recent undertaking is the reduction of Wynton Marsalis’s Tuba Concerto to be performed on recital tours with Carol Jantsch, the renowned principal tuba of The Philadelphia Orchestra.
Liz completed her doctorate in collaborative piano at Arizona State University and is currently living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she serves on the collaborative piano staff at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. Additionally, she serves as collaborative pianist for workshops and institutes, including the Interlochen Saxophone Intensive, the MPulse Institutes at the University of Michigan, and the Orford Music Academy (Quebec, Canada). She performs with musicians throughout the Midwest, including flutist Amy Porter, tubist David Zerkel, bassoonist Jeffrey Lyman, and her duo partner, three-time GRAMMY-winning saxophonist, Timothy McAllister.
The McAllister/Ames Duo released two, critically-acclaimed albums during 2020, including the collected works of British composer Andy Scott for NAXOS Records, as well as a disc of iconic saxophone repertoire by Albright, Denisov, Stucky, Mantovani and Augusta Read Thomas for the XAS Records (Symphonic) label. Their third album, Project Encore, was released in September 2022 on Neuma Records featuring music by fourteen diverse composers from across the globe.