This week I had to pleasure of visiting Montclair State University for a reading session of Miguel Bolivar’s Concertino for alto saxophone and wind ensemble. Years in the making, it was incredibly to finally play through all three movements with a full ensemble. Congrats to Miguel on a fantastic piece and a huge thanks to conductor Thomas McCauley and the Montclair State University Wind Symphony!
The past few weeks I’ve had the pleasure of rehearsing and performing with Duxbury Middle School’s Silver Band. I grew up in Duxbury, MA and was asked by directors Jill Noerenberg and Ric Madru to collaborate on a new commission. Needless to say, this was awesome news!
We brought Miguel Bolivar on board and the result is his new piece “Concertino” for solo alto sax, winds, and percussion. Last weekend we performed the work at the National Association for Music Educators All-Eastern conference. It was a wonderful experience with a completely amazing middle school band. I’ll post a video of the piece in a week or so.
Last Friday I had the pleasure of returning to my hometown (Duxbury, MA) to premiere new music! The Duxbury Middle School Silver Band was selected to perform at this year’s NAfmE Eastern division conference. It’s a huge honor and a testament to the amazing program managed by Ric Madru and Jill Noerenberg. To celebrate they reached out to me to create a commissioned work featuring an alumnus. I pulled Miguel Bolivar on board and the result is his latest piece “Concertino” for alto sax and wind ensemble. The piece is a vibrant blend of fast sax riffs, soaring melodies, and a “music box” theme played by the percussion section.
We had a wonderful first performance (rehearsal pictured above) and I’m looking forward to performing during an assembly near the end of March and the NAfME conference in early April!
I’m sad to announce that after 5 years of awesome music and fun projects together, AM/PM members have decided to go our separate ways. We are each busy with our own projects and thought that it would be best to wrap things up.
To celebrate our past work together, take a listen to one of our favorite live recordings:
Saxophone Quartet #1 by Miguel Bolivar
live performance by the AM/PM Quartet - Jeremiah Baker (soprano sax), Zach Herchen (alto sax), Miguel Bolivar (tenor sax), Cara Salveson (baritone sax)
Mvmt I and Mvmt II (attacca)
Mvmt III
Mvmt IV
Vivre Musicale has posted videos from AM/PM’s performance of Miguel Bolivar’s second piece for sax quartet: Phases of Love. Enjoy!
1. Love Lost
2. Crush
3. Unrequited Love
4. Lust
5. Friendship
6. New Love
I just got back from a great performance weekend with AM/PM Sax Quartet! We played three concerts with Vivre Musicale (a chamber music society based in Baltimore and DC). Our first two performances were titled SeNsuAlitY and presented “the pursuit and peril of physical pleasure. Offering the audience an in-depth (and at times unexpected) look into the sensual, this program is an exploration of sensuality itself, as well as it’s consequences and rewards.”
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