AT-HOME: Sinta Saxophone Quartet - American Voices
The acclaimed Sinta Quartet is on a mission to bring the versatility, unique sound, and excitement of the saxophone to audiences everywhere. Immerse yourself in this entertaining program influenced by jazz and folk styles. Artistic Director Soovin Kim and pianist Gilles Vonsattel will be featured in concerto-like works with the Sinta Quartet, including a new arrangement of Rhapsody in Blue.
Sponsors: CMNW Volunteers
Online Virtual Concert
Friday, 8/5 • 7:00 pm PT
Available through Thursday, 9/1 • 11:59 pm PT
Program
Click on any piece of music below to learn more about it.
- LIGETI Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet
GYÖRGY LIGETI(1923 - 2006)
Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet (1953)(13’)
(arranged for Saxophone Quartet by the Sinta Quartet)I. Allegro con spirito
II. Rubato: Lamentoso
III. Allegro grazioso
IV. Presto ruvido
V. Adagio: Mesto (Béla Bartók in memoriam)
VI. CapricciosIn the years just after World War II, chafing under the aesthetic restrictions of Hungary’s post-war government, György Ligeti embarked on a quest for a new sound. “In 1951, I started to experiment with simple structures of rhythm and sound in order, in a manner of speaking, to build up a new music from nothing,” Ligeti wrote. “ … I asked myself, what can I do with a single note? what can I do with its octave? what with one interval? what with two intervals? What with definite rhythmic relationships which could form the foundation of a whole based on rhythm and interval? In this way, several small pieces were composed, chiefly for piano.” Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles for Wind Quintet emerged from this experiment, as an adaptation of an earlier piano solo, Musica Ricercata.
© Elizabeth Schwartz
- KRISTIN KUSTER ‘Red Pine’ (2014)
KRISTIN KUSTER (b. 1973) Red Pine (2014) • (9’)
Written for Sinta Quartet, Kristin Kuster’s Red Pine depicts the serene, meditative state she discovered while walking through the woods. “I wrote Red Pine to mark the retirement of Don Sinta from the University of Michigan,” Kuster says. “The idea for this music came from my favorite hike in Ontario, Canada, the Wilderness Trail at the Pinery Provincial Park. It’s a slow meandering hike through a dense forest of red pine trees … the saxes fold under and over each other in really lush chords to reflect changes in-depth perception in a dense forest as we move through it.”
© Elizabeth Schwartz
- JOHN MACKEY ‘Unquiet Spirits’ (2012)
JOHN MACKEY (b. 1973) Unquiet Spirits (2012) • (13’)
I.
II.
III.John Mackey’s Unquiet Spirits fuses his energetic contemporary style with elements of funk and jazz. Mackey explains, “The piece’s title reflects the unsettled and unsettling moods of its three movements. The restless first movement propels the ensemble to a climactic bout of raucous rhythmic gestures. The second movement is an off-kilter dance, featuring acrobatic counterpoint throughout the ensemble and an eerie, waltz-like middle theme. Finally, the third movement is a fiendish moto perpetuo, a ‘barn burner.’”
© Elizabeth Schwartz- MARK O’ CONNOR ‘Appalachia Waltz’ (1996) Arr. Dan Graser
MARK O’ CONNOR (b. 1961) Appalachia Waltz (1996) • (7’) Arr. Dan Graser
“American fiddle virtuoso Mark O’Connor’s Appalachia Waltz is a nostalgic remembrance of a waltz,” says Sinta’s soprano saxophonist Dan Graser, who arranged it. “It’s a traditional tune that has a lyricism and sense of memory; it has been adapted to many instrumental combinations.”
—© Elizabeth Schwartz
- GEORGE GERSHWIN ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ for piano & saxophone quartet (arr. Alistair Coleman)
GERSHWIN (1898-1937) Rhapsody in Bluefor Piano and Saxophone Quartet (1924) • (18’)
Arranged for piano & saxophone quartet by Alistair ColemanGeorge Gershwin’s beloved Rhapsody in Blue introduced jazz to classical audiences, and simultaneously made an instant star of its composer. From its iconic clarinet glissando to its brilliant finale, Rhapsody in Blue epitomizes the Gershwin sound.
On January 4, 1924, Ira Gershwin showed his brother George an article in the New York Tribune about an upcoming concert by jazz bandleader Paul Whiteman, grandiosely titled “An Experiment in Modern Music,” that would endeavor to trace the history of jazz. The article concluded, “George Gershwin is at work on a jazz concerto.” This was certainly news to Gershwin, who was then in rehearsals for a Broadway show. Gershwin contacted Whiteman to refute the Tribune article, but Whiteman eventually talked Gershwin into the project.
In 1931, Gershwin described to biographer Isaac Goldberg how the musical ideas for Rhapsody in Blue first emerged: “It was on the train, with its steely rhythms, its rattle-ty bang, that is so often so stimulating to a composer … And there I suddenly heard, and even saw on paper – the complete construction of the Rhapsody, from beginning to end … I heard it as a sort of musical kaleidoscope of America, of our vast melting pot, of our unduplicated national pep, of our metropolitan madness.”
At the premiere, Gershwin’s “musical kaleidoscope of America,” coupled with his phenomenal abilities at the keyboard, wowed the audience as much as the novelty of hearing jazz idioms in a classical work.
The opening clarinet solo got its signature jazzy glissando from Whiteman’s clarinetist Ross Gorman. This opening unleashes a floodgate of colorful ideas that blend seamlessly. The pulsing syncopated rhythms and showy music eventually morph into a warm, expansive melody.
© Elizabeth Schwartz
Artists
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Sinta Quartet
Saxophone Quartet
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“Virtuosic to the core” (Textura) and hailed as “a tight-knit ensemble exploding with power and virtuosity” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), the Sinta Quartet is on a mission to bring the versatility, homogeneity, and excitement of the saxophone to audiences everywhere. Strengthening an already palpable connection with its audience by performing entirely from memory, the quartet provides a fresh take on chamber music that is at once beautiful, virtuosic, and a completely interactive experience.
The Sinta Quartet injects music and fun into the air for unsuspecting passersby by appearing in nontraditional venues such as grocery stores, bars, and other public places, but they have also performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Hall, and the Beijing Center for the Performing Arts. Since forming in 2010 as soloists for a tour of China with the University of Michigan Symphony Band, the quartet has concertized in 9 countries, 31 states, and 2 Canadian provinces, giving diverse audiences a chance to experience a classical saxophone quartet for the first time. The Sinta Quartet made history in 2013 as the first saxophone ensemble to win the Victor Elmaleh First Prize from the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and continued to achieve success on the competition circuit, winning the Gold Medal at the 2018 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition, First Prize at the 2017 M-Prize Chamber Arts Competition, the Alice Coleman Grand Prize at the 2013 Coleman Chamber Music Competition, and 1st Prize at the 2012 North American Saxophone Alliance Competition.
The quartet’s programming takes the audience on an adventure through time, geography, and genre, often mixing classics from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries with commissions by today’s composers and rollicking in-house arrangements from various folk traditions. In addition to their live performances, the quartet recently released two albums featuring predominantly recent commissions and winning pieces from Sinta Quartet’s annual National Composition Competition. The first, Collider, hailed as, “An exciting ride! The ensemble, intonation, and technique in this recording are beyond question” (The Saxophonist Magazine), was released in 2019, and the second, Ex Machina, which was praised as “tightly performed and flawlessly recorded in generous, in-your-face sound” (Musical America), was released in 2020.
All four members of SQ are also passionate and dedicated teachers and relish the opportunity to play for and work with students of all ages. They carefully craft and curate programs designed for all levels of public school students and every type of community venue.
While Dan, Zach, Joe, and Danny all grew up in drastically different parts of the country (NY, TX, MI, and CA), they met at the University of Michigan where they studied with the legendary saxophone professor, Donald Sinta, and decided to name the group after him for the profound influence he had on each member and the inspired coaching he gave to the group during their student years.
Managed by General Arts Touring, Inc., Sinta Quartet’s members are all Selmer-Paris Artists and perform exclusively on Selmer saxophones. -
Gilles Vonsattel
Piano
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A “wanderer between worlds” (Lucerne Festival), “immensely talented” and “quietly powerful pianist” (The New York Times), Swiss-born American Gilles Vonsattel is an artist of extraordinary versatility and originality. Comfortable with and seeking out an enormous range of repertoire, Vonsattel displays a musical curiosity and sense of adventure that has gained him many admirers. Recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and winner of the Naumburg and Geneva competitions as well as the 2016 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, he has in recent years appeared with the Boston Symphony, Tanglewood, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and Detroit Symphony Orchestra, while performing recitals and chamber music at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ravinia, Tokyo’s Musashino Hall, Wigmore Hall, Bravo! Vail, Music@Menlo, the Gilmore festival, the Lucerne Festival, and the Munich Gasteig. His 2014 New York solo recital was hailed as “tightly conceived and passionately performed…a study in intensity” by The New York Times.
As a soloist, he has also appeared with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, Edmonton Symphony, l’Orchestre Symphonique du Québec, Boston Pops, Nashville Symphony, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Staatskapelle Halle, and L’orchestre de chambre de Genève. Chamber partners include musicians such as James Ehnes, Frank Huang, Ilya Gringolts, Nicolas Altstaedt, David Shifrin, David Finckel, Stefan Jackiw, Jörg Widmann, Gary Hoffman, Carter Brey, David Requiro, Paul Huang, Anthony Marwood, Paul Neubauer, Paul Watkins, Philip Setzer, Emmanuel Pahud, Karen Gomyo, David Jolley, and Ida Kavafian. He has appeared in concert with the Emerson, Pacifica, Orion, St. Lawrence, Ebène, Danish, Miró, Daedalus, Escher, and Borromeo Quartets. Mr. Vonsattel is Principal Pianist of Camerata Pacifica, a member of the Swiss Chamber Soloists, and plays alongside Ida Kavafian and David Jolley in Trio Valtorna. Deeply committed to the performance of contemporary works, he has premiered numerous works both in the United States and Europe and worked closely with notable composers such as Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, and George Benjamin. His recording for the Honens/Naxos label of music by Debussy, Honegger, Holliger, and Ravel was named one of Time Out New York’s 2011 classical albums of the year, while a 2014 release on GENUIN/Artist Consort received a 5/5 from FonoForum and international critical praise. His latest solo release (2015) for Honens of Scarlatti, Webern, Messiaen, Debussy, and George Benjamin’s Shadowlines received rave reviews in Gramophone, The New York Times, and the American Record Guide. Upcoming recordings include Richard Strauss’ Panathenäenzug and Kurt Leimer’s Concerto for Left Hand with the Bern Symphony Orchestra and Mario Venzago, for the Schweizer Fonogramm label.
Recent projects include Berg’s Kammerkonzert with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, a tour with Jörg Widmann and the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Mozart concerti with the Vancouver Symphony and Florida Orchestra, performances at Seoul’s LG Arts Centre and at the Beijing Modern Music Festival, collaborations with Kent Nagano with L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Munich Philharmonic (Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2, The Age of Anxiety) as well as numerous appearances internationally and throughout the United States with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Mr. Vonsattel received his bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Columbia University and his master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal. He is Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and on the faculty of Bard Conservatory. Gilles Vonsattel is a Steinway Artist.