Six Saxophonists to Perform April 28 at VSU

VALDOSTA — Six Valdosta State University saxophonists will come together for one more afternoon this season, performing a selection of music for the public at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 28, in Whitehead Auditorium. The concert is free of charge.

Dr. Joren Cain, an associate professor of music at VSU who has played the saxophone for 25 years, said, “This concert provides an opportunity for the students to perform in a chamber music setting with other saxophonists. The saxophone quartet is the standard saxophone ensemble, but this program will feature saxophone sextets — music for six saxophones. Also, this will be the first concert on campus that will showcase our new bass saxophone. This is a larger and lower-pitched instrument than the standard baritone saxophone, and the music department purchased it this past fall.”

Sunday’s program will feature compositions by Terry McQuilkin, Eric Satie, Georges Kastner, Edvard Grieg, Alexander Glazounov, John Dowland, and Alexis Ciesla.

Music majors Fernando Chavez (soprano saxophone), Landan Frazier (soprano and alto saxophone), Nick Johnson (alto, tenor, and bass saxophone), and Brennan Short (tenor saxophone) will be joined on stage by Jeffrey Gallant (baritone saxophone), a reference librarian in charge of electronic resources and technology at VSU’s Odum Library, and Cain (alto saxophone).

Leslie Smith (tambourine) will assist the saxophone sextet on Ciesla’s Klezmer Suite. Maila Gutierrez-Springfield (piano) will accompany Frazier, a junior studying music education, on Glazounov’s Concerto in Eb.    

“The students have worked very hard on this music over the course of the semester, and I’m very proud of what they have accomplished,” Cain said. 

Whitehead Auditorium is located on the first floor of the VSU Fine Arts Building, at the intersection of Oak Street and Brookwood Drive.

Contact Dr. Joren Cain at (229) 333-5806 or jocain@valdosta.edu to learn more.