The Music of Sean Friar (performance)
Jeff Siegfried / classical, crossover
Website(s) : http://www.jeffsiegfried.com / http://www.seanfriar.com
This project features the music of the prominent young composer, Sean Friar, and involves two world-premiere performances.
Biography
Jeff Siegfried is emerging as a unique voice in his generation of saxophonists.
His recent solo endeavors include concerto performances with the University of Portland Wind Ensemble, the Oregon State University Wind Ensemble, and the U.S. Army Band, “Pershing’s Own.”
Siegfried has appeared with the New World Symphony on multiple occasions. He was selected to play orchestral saxophone in the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival.
His scholarly contributions include presentations in Belgium, Hungary, the UK, and the US.
Siegfried was a finalist at the 2012 International Saxophone Symposium and Competition. He won second place in the 2014 Carmel Music Society Young Artist Competition and 2nd prize at the NASA and MTNA chamber competitions. He is a Luminarts fellow in classical music.
More informations
My proposed project features the music of the prominent young composer, Sean Friar, and involves two world-premier performances. I will be performing an authorized transcription of the “Étude for English Horn and Prepared Piano” and brand new composition for saxophone and piano, which is currently untitled.
Composer and pianist, Sean Friar (b. 1985) grew up in Los Angeles, where his first musical experiences were in rock and blues piano improvisation. While his focus soon shifted toward classical music, his composition has always kept in touch with the energy and communicative directness of those musical roots, now along with an expansive and exploratory classical sensibility that is “powerfully engaging and incredibly fun” (I Care if You Listen) and “refreshingly new and solidly mature… and doesn’t take on airs, but instead takes joy in the process of discovery – in the continual experience of suspense and surprise – that good classical music has always championed.” (Slate Magazine).
He has written previously for saxophone but never in a solo or duo setting. This commission represents an important new channel for the saxophone and I cannot imagine a better place to present this work for the first time. I am uniquely positioned to premier this this music because of the support of the Luminarts foundation in Chicago, where I will perform the U.S. premier of the work following the World Saxophone Congress.
Programming
13/07/2015 17:00 - 17:30
Cité de la musique et de la danse - Salle 22
Musicians / speakers
- Siegfried Jeff (United States)
- Liz Ames / Piano (United States)
Program
- Étude for Alto Saxophone and Prepare Piano (Sean Friar) / World Premiere
- New Work (Untitled) (Sean Friar) / World Premiere
