Michael Holmes (born 1982) is an American classical saxophonist, originally from Findlay, Ohio.
Holmes' degrees are from Bowling Green State University (B.M.E.) and the University of Illinois (M.M. and D.M.A.). His main teachers included John Sampen and Debra Richtmeyer, and has had additional studies with Jean-Marie Londeix, Claude Delangle, Griffin Campbell, Daniel Kientzy, and Eugene Rousseau. Michael is Artist-Teacher of Saxophone as-well-as Head of Woodwinds at Roosevelt University Chicago College of Performing Arts. He was formerly on faculty at the University of Illinois, the College of Wooster, and University of Notre Dame. Holmes also held positions as Director of Product Marketing for Saxophones at Conn-Selmer and Artistic Advisor and Product Specialist for Vandoren.
Holmes has received international acclaim as an orchestral saxophonist, and has performed as principal saxophonist with numerous orchestras including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Peninsula Music Festival Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonia da Camera, the Toledo Repertoire Theatre, and the Champaign-Urbana Symphony.
Frederick L. Hemke, DMA(néFred 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 to increase the popularity of classical saxophone, particularly among leading American composers. He contributed to raise the recognition of the classical saxophone in solo, chamber, and major orchestral repertoire throughout the world. For half a 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 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.
Roland and Almita Vamos are a husband and wife who are violin and viola instructors. The Vamoses have been recognized at the White House seven times and were named Distinguished Teachers by the National Endowment for the Arts. They have been honored by the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) with the Distinguished Service Award, and showcased on CBS' Sunday Morning News.
James Di Pasquale is an American musician and composer of contemporary classical music and music for television and films.
John Sampen is an American classical saxophonist.
Bernard Rands is a British-American contemporary classical composer. He studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy. He held residencies at Princeton University, the University of Illinois, and the University of York before emigrating to the United States in 1975; he became a U.S. citizen in 1983. In 1984, Rands's Canti del Sole, premiered by Paul Sperry, Zubin Mehta, and the New York Philharmonic, won the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He has since taught at the University of California, San Diego, the Juilliard School, Yale University, and Boston University. From 1988 to 2005 he taught at Harvard University, where he is Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music Emeritus.
Theodore Kerkezos is a Greek classical saxophonist. He is “…one of the most astounding performers of the day.” Gramophone
Chien-Kwan Lin is a classical saxophonist and teacher.
Dana Richard Wilson is an American composer, jazz pianist, and teacher.
Paul Cohen is an American saxophonist. He is active as a performer, teacher, historian, musicologist, and author in areas related to saxophone.
John-Edward Kelly was an American conductor and saxophonist.
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.
Shmuel Ashkenasi is an Israeli violinist and teacher.
Roger Greenberg is an American saxophonist and saxophone teacher.
James Houlik is an American classical tenor saxophonist and saxophone teacher.
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.
Debra Richtmeyer is an American classical saxophonist born June 19, 1957, in Lansing, Michigan.
Rick VanMatre is an American saxophonist, composer, conductor and educator. As a musician, he has performed as a soloist with the New York Repertory Orchestra and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and recorded with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra and PsychoAcoustic Orchestra. VanMatre has produced numerous albums, including Serenade in Blue and currently performs as the leader of the Rick VanMatre Quintet.
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.
Timothy McAllister is an American classical saxophonist and music educator, who, as of 2014, is Professor of Saxophone at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance.