Wright State alum leads saxophone group for chamber music series

YELLOW SPRINGS – Saxophones times four will bring the brass to Chamber Music in Yellow Springs’ second concert of the season.

The prize-winning saxophone quartet Project Fusion will perform at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 29, at the First Presbyterian Church.

Project Fusion is comprised of four Eastman School of Music alums: Dannel Espinoza, soprano saxophone; Matt Amedio, alto saxophone; Michael Sawzin, tenor saxophone; and Matthew Evans, baritone saxophone.

Sawzin earned his Bachelor of Music degrees with Honors in Music Education and Saxophone Performance at Wright State University, winning a concerto competition and honors recital, later earning his graduate degrees at Eastman.

One of the things that makes the group stand out is the members play entirely from memory, according to Celia Diamond, Chamber Music in Yellow Springs publicity chair.

They play standard works and new music which will be engaging, lively and animated on stage, Sawzin told a reviewer.

During Sunday’s performance, Project Fusion will perform a Bach chorale; Bartók’s “Six Romanian Dances”; “Tango Virtuoso” by French contemporary composer Thierry Escaich; “Andante et Scherzo” by Eugène Bozza; and Mark Mellits’s rhythmic, jazz-influenced “Ex Machina.”

Sawzin and his colleagues will visit his former school on Monday, Oct. 30, after the concert at the Wright State Saxophone Studio.

Shelley Jagow, Professor of Music at Wright State who Sawzin studied under, will give a preconcert lecture starting at 6:45 p.m.

This will be the final Chamber Music in Yellow Springs concert of 2017. The season will continue Feb. 11, 2018, with the Bennewitz String Quartet.


WANT TO GO?

What: Project Fusion

Where: First Presbyterian Church, 314 Xenia Ave., Yellow Springs

When: Sunday, Oct. 29, 7:30 p.m.

Admission: Adults $25; students $7

More info: 937-374-8800 or go to www.cmys.org

About the Author