The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E♭, smaller than the B♭ tenor but larger than the B♭ soprano. It is the most common saxophone and is used in popular music, concert bands, chamber music, solo repertoire, military bands, marching bands, pep bands, and jazz.
Fred Hemke, DMA(néFrederick Leroy Hemke Jr.; July 11, 1935 – April 17, 2019) was an American virtuoso classical saxophonist and influential professor of saxophone at Northwestern University. Hemke helped raise the popularity of classical saxophone, particularly among leading American composers and helped raise the recognition of classical saxophone in solo, chamber, and major orchestral repertoire. For a half century, from 1962 to 2012, Hemke was a full-time faculty music educator at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music. In 2002, Hemke was named Associate Dean Emeritus of the School of Music. Hemke retired from Northwestern University in 2012. From the start of his career in the early 1960s, building on the achievements of earlier influential American teachers of classical saxophone — including those of Larry Teal, Joseph Allard, Cecil Leeson, Sigurd Raschèr, and Vincent Abato — Hemke, and a handful of peer American saxophonists — including Eugene Rousseau and Donald Sinta — helped build American saxophone repertoire through composers that included Muczynski, Creston, Stein, Heiden, and Karlins. Journalist and author Michael Segell, in his 2005 book, The Devil's Horn, called Hemke "The Dean of Saxophone Education in America." Hemke died on April 17, 2019.
Melinda Jane Wagner is a US composer, and winner of the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in music. Her undergraduate degree is from Hamilton College. She received her graduates degrees from University of Chicago and University of Pennsylvania. She also served as Composer-in-Residence at the University of Texas (Austin) and at the 'Bravo!' Vail Valley Music Festival. Some of her teachers included Richard Wernick, George Crumb, Shulamit Ran, and Jay Reise.
James Garland Riggs is an American saxophonist in classical and jazz idioms, big band director, collegiate music educator, and international music clinician. He is also a University of North Texas Regents Professor Emeritus.
Frank Ticheli is an American composer of orchestral, choral, chamber, and concert band works. He lives in Los Angeles, California, where he is a Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California. He was the Pacific Symphony's composer-in-residence from 1991 to 1998, composing numerous works for that orchestra. A number of his works are particularly notable, as they have become standards in concert band repertoire.
Paul Cohen is an American saxophonist. He is active as a performer, teacher, historian, musicologist, and author in areas related to saxophone.
Kenneth A. Radnofsky is an American classical saxophonist. He specializes in the alto saxophone, but plays the soprano and other sizes as well. He currently teaches at the New England Conservatory of Music, and Boston University.
John Mackey is an American composer of contemporary classical music, with an emphasis on music for wind band, as well as orchestra. For several years, he focused on music for modern dance and ballet.
Dan Welcher is an American composer, conductor, and music educator.
Roger Greenberg is an American saxophonist and saxophone teacher.
James Houlik is an American classical tenor saxophonist and saxophone teacher.
Kenneth Tse 謝德驥 is a Chinese American classical saxophonist. Tse was mainly self-taught as a youth until he met world-renowned saxophone artist and pedagogue Eugene Rousseau in 1989. He then studied at the Indiana University School of Music with Rousseau from 1993 to 1998, where he received his BM, MM, and Artist Diploma. Rousseau has called him "a brilliant saxophonist, worthy of any stage in the world." Tse earned a doctorate degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign studying under saxophonist Debra Richtmeyer.
Don Braden is an American jazz tenor saxophonist.
John Read Giordano is an American orchestra conductor, professor of music, composer, and former concert saxophonist. He is Associate Professor of Music at Texas Christian University. He is Music Director Emeritus of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra where he served as Music Director and Conductor for 27 years, Founder of the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra, Jury Chairman of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition since 1973, Music Director Emeritus of the Youth Orchestra of Greater Fort Worth, Founder and Director of the Colorado College Summer Music Festival and Conservatory, Director of Chamber Music for the Bowdoin Summer Music Festival, International Guest Conductor, published composer and arranger with an extensive award-winning discography.
David T. Little is a Grammy-nominated American composer, record producer, and drummer known for his operatic, orchestral, and chamber works, most notably his operas JFK,Soldier Songs, and Dog Days which was named a standout opera of recent decades by The New York Times. He is the artistic director of Newspeak, an eight-piece amplified ensemble that explores the boundaries between rock and classical music, and is a member of the composition faculty at Mannes School of Music.
Norman Gary Foster is an American musician who plays saxophone, clarinet, and flute. He is considered a crossover artist, performing jazz, pop, and classical music. He has been prominent in the film, television, and music industries for five decades, having performed on over 500 movie scores and with over 200 orchestras.
Timothy M. Ries is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, band leader, and music educator at the collegiate/conservatory level. Ries is in his sixteenth year as a professor of jazz studies at the University of Toronto. His universe of work as composer, arranger, and instrumentalist ranges from rock to jazz to classical to experimental to ethno to fusions of respective genres thereof. His notable works with wide popularity include The Rolling Stones Project, a culmination of jazz arrangements of music by the Stones produced on two albums, the first in 2005 and the second in 2008.
Michael Matthews, born August 28, 1950 in Gander, Newfoundland, is a composer and photographer. Matthews completed a Ph.D. in composition at North Texas State University in 1985. Matthews is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and works in Berlin.
James Scott Syler is an American composer fluent in many genres of music including Wind Ensemble, Choral, Orchestral, and Chamber Music.
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