Augustana College will host the annual Shockingly Modern Saxophone Festival on Saturday, Feb. 22, on the Rock Island campus.
The event, featuring the Chicago-based ~Nois saxophone quartet, will be held at Bergendoff Hall, 3701 7th Ave.. All events are free and open to the public.
The annual festival features performances by the Augustana saxophone students and faculty, as well as a guest artist. The performances often challenge and expand the ideas about music as they push the saxophone to its technical and expressive limits, the college said in a news release.
The Shockingly Modern Saxophone Festival celebrates new and experimental music for saxophone. It explores the nearly unlimited sonic potential of the saxophone through new composition, improvisation, extended performance techniques, microtonality, electronic music, multimedia, and other experimental elements.
All events will be held in Larson Hall inside Bergendoff Hall:
- 10:30 a.m. – Student recital and ~Nois masterclass.
- 2:30 p.m. – Concert with Randall Hall.
- 3:30 p.m. – Q&A with ~Nois.
- 7:30 p.m. – ~Nois Concert.
The members of ~Nois include János Csontos, Julian Velasco, and Jordan Lulloff. The ensemble has been awarded top prizes at prestigious chamber music competitions including the M-Prize International Arts Competition, the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and has presented over 150 performances spanning 24 states. With more than 100 world premieres to date, the members of ~Nois have had the privilege of working closely with some of the world’s leading voices in composition.
