Juried Art Show Winner
Elena Øhlander

SUNDAY, MAR. 10 AT 4:00PM

KENARI SAXOPHONE QUARTET

Visual Artist
Hillary Hogue

ST. PAUL’S BY-THE-SEA EPISCOPAL CHURCH

SIGNATURE CONCERT SPONSOR

Kyle Baldwin, soprano saxophone
Steven Banks, alto saxophone
Corey Dundee, tenor saxophone
Bob Eason, baritone saxophone

Applauded for their “flat-out amazing” performances and “stunning virtuosity” (Cleveland Classical), the highly acclaimed Kenari Quartet delivers inspiring performances that transform the perception of the saxophone. The quartet aims to highlight the instrument’s remarkable versatility by presenting meticulously crafted repertoire from all periods of classical and contemporary music.

The Kenari Quartet has found a home performing on many of the premiere chamber music series in the United States. Recent engagements include appearances at Chamber Music Northwest, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and Chamber Music Tulsa, among others. For many chamber music institutions, the Kenari Quartet has been proud to serve as the first ensemble of its kind to be presented.

In addition to cultivating the highest level of performance, the Kenari Quartet has a deep passion for collaboration and innovation. Most recently, the quartet premiered J.P. Redmond’s 9×9: Nine Pieces for Nonet alongside the inimitable Imani Winds. As a testament to the flexibility of the saxophone quartet, the Kenari Quartet was recently a featured artist in Baldwin Wallace Conservatory’s 86th Annual Bach Festival. Here, they collaborated with faculty, student musicians, and academics to present an unprecedented residency centering around the influence of J.S. Bach on the late composer David Maslanka, as well as improvisation throughout musical history.

The quartet advocates passionately for the music of living composers, and it has given world premieres of new works by Mischa Zupko, Joel Love, and David Salleras, among others. As a recipient of Chamber Music America’s 2016 Classical Commissioning Grant, the Kenari Quartet was awarded a generous grant that allowed them to commission a new work from Corey Dundee, the group’s very own tenor saxophonist. This exciting project was made possible by the Andrew. W. Mellon Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the Chamber Music America Endowment Fund.

In 2016, the quartet released their debut album—titled French Saxophone Quartets—on the Naxos Records label. This recording project features early masterworks for saxophone quartet by French composers Eugéne Bozza, Alfred Desenclos, Pierre Max Dubois, Jean Françaix, Gabriel Pierné, and Florent Schmitt. The Kenari Quartet also appears on David Deboor Canfield’s 2018 album, Saxophone Music, Vol. II, with their performance of Canfield’s Opus Pocus, a delightful and witty work that depicts wondrous magicians and illusionists such as Merlin and Houdini.

Committed to giving back to their communities, the Kenari Quartet is regularly involved in community engagement opportunities and educational endeavors. As a part of their touring activities, they often perform and teach at youth centers and grade schools around the country. The quartet has also given performances, masterclasses, and lectures around the country at various universities, including the University of Michigan, Indiana University, the University of Southern California, the University of Houston, and the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory.

Formed in 2012 at Indiana University, the quartet’s name is derived from the Malay word “kenari”, which may be translated as “songbird.” Expanding on the age-old idea that birds communicate through song, the Kenari Quartet seeks to exemplify this concept through concert hall performances. By not only connecting with their audiences via song, but also through physical movement, Kenari amplifies the standard concert experience with their striking visual communication and powerful stage presence. The Kenari Quartet is represented by Jean Schreiber Management.

Bob Eason

Hailed by Fanfare magazine for his “exceptional feel for elegance, wit… and tonal beauty,” Dr. Bob Eason is a saxophonist, educator, and clinician. Eason is Adjunct Instructor of Saxophone at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX where he prepares students of all backgrounds for careers in music.

Eason is in-demand as a soloist, with guest artist residencies at the 2020 Rio Winds Festival (Rio de Janerio), the 2019 XVIII Encuentro Universitario Internacional de Saxofón México (Mexico City), and the 2018 SaxoBang Festival (Taipei). An advocate of diversity in new music, Eason has commissioned works from Viet Cuong, Corey Dundee, Karalyn Schubring, Nina Shekhar, and Carlos Simon, among many others.

Eason is the soprano saxophonist and founding member of the Kenari Quartet, an ensemble that has garnered acclaim through engaging performances, festival and educational residencies, and commissioning projects. Among many competition wins, the Kenari Quartet won the 1st Prize in the inaugural M-Prize competition in 2016 and was awarded a prize of $20,000. In collaboration with the Naxos music label, the Kenari Quartet released the album French Saxophone Quartets, which contains many of the saxophone quartet’s most important compositions.

A native of Houston, TX, Eason founded the Young Saxophonist’s Institute and continues to teach summer camps in the Houston and Dallas/Ft. Worth areas for middle school and high school saxophonists. This year the Young Saxophonist’s Institute celebrated its 13th year in serving Texas middle school and high school students and is proud to have reached more than 650 saxophonists since its beginning in 2007.

Eason completed his doctorate and master’s degree at Indiana University, and he also has a bachelor’s degree in music education from the University of Houston. His primary teachers include Otis Murphy, Thomas Walsh, Dan Gelok, Valerie Vidal, Karen Wylie, Chris Patterson, and Theron Sharp.

Bob Eason is an Endorsing Artist for Légère Reeds and plays exclusively on the Signature Series reeds.

Kyle Baldwin

Kyle Baldwin is currently living in the San Francisco Bay Area where he is teaching a small studio of students and continues performing with the Kenari Quartet. In the summer of 2016, Kyle graduated from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music with a bachelor’s degree in music performance. There he studied with Dr. Otis Murphy and professor Tom Walsh. Originally from Fresno, California, he has also studied with Dr. Alan Durst at Fresno State University and Professor Larry Honda at Fresno City College. As a result of winning first prize in the Kings Symphony Young Artists Concerto Competition, Kyle performed Alexander Glazunov’s Concerto with the Kings Symphony. He is a recipient of the Premier Young Artist Award Scholarship, a very honorable award given in the Jacobs School of Music, as well as the Marcel Mule Scholarship. At Indiana University, Kyle has performed as a member of the New Voices Opera, the Jacobs School of Music Saxophone Ensemble, and the Symphonic Band.

Much of Kyle’s college career has been devoted to premiering new works for saxophone. He has collaborated with several composers in the Fresno State composition department where he has worked with Joey Bohigian, Luffy Baliey, Dr. Benjamine Boone, and Dr. Kenneth Froelich. He has also had the honor of premiering Benjamine Boone’s Ascencion: An Etho-Historical Cantana with the Fresno State Choir as a featured soloist. Kyle enjoys experimenting with new approaches to classical music through unique instrumentation and new performance concepts.

Corey Dundee

Corey Dundee is an Ann Arbor-based composer and saxophonist whose work has been described as “trippy dream music” (casual university acquaintance) and “falling down a black rabbit hole” (six-year-old concert-goer in Norfolk, CT). A recipient of Chamber Music America’s 2016 Classical Commissioning Grant, Corey was recently awarded an Artist Residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center in Nebraska City, and in 2013 he was named Grand Prize winner of the Calefax Reed Quintet International Composition Competition. Corey has been a frequent finalist for the Morton Gould Young Composer Award presented by ASCAP, and he has received commissions from the Norfolk Contemporary Ensemble, the Taos Chamber Music Group, the UNCSAx ensemble, and saxophonist Shawna Pennock.

As a performer, Corey has appeared as featured soloist with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the North Carolina Symphony, the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, the Interlochen Philharmonic, and the UNC School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra. In April of 2012, he performed on stage with singer-songwriter Ben Folds at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC for Arts Advocacy Day 2012. Corey can be heard on NPR’s Telarc-label CD titled “From the Top at the Pops,” performing the third movement of Russell Peck’s The Upward Stream concerto with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra.

Corey is currently a Regents Fellow and Graduate Student Instructor at the University of Michigan, where he is pursuing a DMA degree in Composition under the instruction of Bright Sheng. He previously earned an MM Composition degree from the University of Southern California—where he served as a Teaching Assistant for undergraduate music theory and aural skills classes—and BM degrees in Composition and Saxophone Performance from Indiana University. Corey has studied composition with Donald Crockett, Ted Hearne, Samuel Adler, Don Freund, and Claude Baker, and his saxophone instructors have included Otis Murphy, Taimur Sullivan, and Timothy McAllister.

Steven Banks

Recognized for his “glowing mahogany tone” (Seen and Heard International) and “breathtaking” (Classical Voice of NC) performances, American classical saxophonist Steven Banks “is at the forefront of musicians of his generation in his display of the highest level of both artistry and pedagogy.” (Taimur Sullivan, Professor of Saxophone, Northwestern University)

Steven Banks is the first saxophonist to earn a place on the Young Concert Artists roster in its 59-year history, capturing First Prize at the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions as well as the special Korean Concert Society Prize (for support of his Kennedy Center debut), Buffalo Chamber Music Society Prize, Saint Vincent College Concert Series Prize, Sinfonia Gulf Coast Prize, Tannery Pond Concerts Prize, Usedom Music Festival Prize, and Washington Performing Arts Prize.

Mr. Banks has an ongoing relationship with The Cleveland Orchestra, having performed with the legendary ensemble in Severance Hall, Carnegie Hall, and at the Blossom Music Center. He has worked with notable conductors including Franz Welser-Most, Jahja Ling, Matthias Pintscher, Alain Altinoglu, Roderick Cox, among others. This season, Mr. Banks is particularly excited to travel to Abu Dhabi with the orchestra to perform a production of Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, with the American Ballet Theatre.

Banks is the baritone saxophonist of the award-winning Kenari Quartet. The Kenari Quartet has found a home performing on many of the premiere chamber music series in the United States. Recent engagements include appearances at Chamber Music Northwest, the Grand Teton Music Festival, and Chamber Music Tulsa, among others. For many chamber music institutions, the Kenari Quartet has been proud to serve as the first saxophone quartet to be presented. The group has earned top prizes at 7 national and international chamber music competitions. Their debut album, French Saxophone Quartets, was released in December 2016 under the Naxos Records label. Kenari is represented by Jean Schreiber Management.

Banks is an advocate for diversity and inclusion in music education, performance, and newly commissioned works in the classical realm. He gave a talk at the TEDxNorthwesternU 2017 conference with ideas about how to create change in institutionalized prejudices against women and people of color. Since the talk, Banks has written an article for WQXR and given guest lectures on the history of black classical composers. Banks serves as a member of the first Committee on the Status of Women for the North American Saxophone Alliance, and is proud to have been selected as a member of the jury for the first Female Saxophonist Competition.

As a jazz saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist, Banks has performed alongside members and former members of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Buddy Rich Big Band, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, among others. He has played on professionally-released recordings, including Michael Spiro and Wayne Wallace’s album, Canto America, which was nominated for a 2017 GRAMMY award.

Banks serves proudly as Assistant Professor of Saxophone at Ithaca College. He previously served on faculty at the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory. He has a Master of Music degree from the Northwestern University Bienen School of Music in Saxophone Performance and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Saxophone Performance with a minor in Jazz Studies from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. His primary saxophone teachers have been Taimur Sullivan, Otis Murphy, Jr., and Galvin Crisp.

Banks is an endorsing artist for Conn-Selmer instruments, D’Addario Woodwinds, lefreQue Sound Solutions, and Key Leaves.

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