TGIF, Mar 15, 5:30pm

This Friday, the High Desert Saxophones and Peggy Abbott on the piano will perform music by Faure, Cohen, Holst, and Grigg. Sanctuary doors open at 5:15 pm and the concert begins at 5:30. The concert is free with donations accepted.

Program

Piano Quartet N. 1, OP. 15 Gabriel Faure (arr. Kurt Carr)

Fiveplay, Steve Cohen

In the Bleak Midwinter, Gustav Holst  (arr. D. Stempien & G. Turner)

Flashy Tango No. 2 Jordan Grigg

Musicians

Peggy Abbott, piano, is a long time pianist and teacher in Santa Fe. She received a BA in piano performance. Peggy has performed chamber music in the United States and abroad. She premiered works by Mila Murry and Edith Hathaway. In the 80s and 90s she performed at St John’s College most of the duo-piano and piano duet literature with Patrice Williams. Today she is performing works for piano and saxophone quartet.

Cesario Quintana, soprano sax, is retired from his position as Director for the New Mexico Property Tax Division. He started playing saxophone in elementary school and continued through high school. He attended New Mexico State University on a music scholarship, where he performed in the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the NMSU Pride Marching Band and one of the Lab Bands, and studied saxophone under Dr. Charles West. He has also stayed active performing with several pop bands and concert bands. He currently is performing with the High Desert Saxophone Quartet, the High Desert Winds wind ensemble, The Santa Fe Saxophone Quartet, and the Great Big Jazz Band.

Jean McCray, alto sax, Jean began piano lessons in the 2nd grade and added clarinet, then oboe in junior high. Concentrating on the classical oboe in high school, she was chosen outstanding oboist at the state solo and ensemble contest her junior year. A musical hiatus extended from high school graduation to her mid-30’s, when she found herself in Boston practicing law, and one night went to a jazz concert with friends. 2 weeks later she purchased a saxophone and began the adventure (continuing) of learning to play jazz. Jean has played with her own quartet, Fool’s Play, 4Swing, and is presently in a sax/bass ukulele duo, the GJ JazzDuo. She did a short stint with Swing  Shift, a Santa Fe community big band. Jean is honored and delighted to be playing with the accomplished musicians of this group, and happy to return to her classical roots.

David Dennison, tenor sax, is retired from a 37 year engineering career at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, EG&G Energy Measurements, and General Electric Nuclear Energy Division. He started the clarinet at 8 years old and later added the alto and tenor saxophones. He continued playing through high school where he was active in symphonic, jazz, Dixieland, and marching bands. After moving to Santa Fe in 1996 and after a 25 year hiatus from playing any music at all, he started back up. He currently plays clarinet, alto saxophone, and tenor saxophone with several community volunteer musical groups.

Jean Coughlan, baritone sax, is a recently retired band director and music educator who worked in Santa Fe Public Schools for over 25 years. She began playing saxophone in elementary school and continues to this day. She received a BA in Music Performance on the saxophone form the Collage of St. Catherine in St. Paul, MN in 1982 and a BS in Music Education with band emphasis from the University of Minnesota, Mankato, MN in 1987. She started her teaching career in Minnesota and moved to Santa Fe in 1994. She has taught high school band, junior high band, and elementary band, and elementary general music. She is currently a member of the Santa Fe Great Big Jazz Band and conducts the Con Brio Saxophone Quartet.

Dr. Jan Gaynor, Music Coach, holds BA and MA degrees in Musical Performance on Trombone from San Francisco State University and holds a lifetime teaching credential in music from the State of California, as well as a teaching credential in New Mexico. Dr. Gaynor also holds Administrative Credentials in California and New Mexico. Dr. Gaynor earned her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Instructional Design from University of San Francisco. Prior to official retirement from California public schools, Gaynor spent over 30 years as a music teacher, high school administrator and part-time college and university instructor – during which time she was also very active with local community theater companies serving as musical director and conductor for well over 35 musical productions, as well as co-principal trombonist with the Peninsula Symphony. After moving to Santa Fe in 2006, Dr. Gaynor has been active as a teacher, student and new teacher mentor, performer, conductor, adjudicator and clinician.

Composers

Gabriel Urbain Fauré; (12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers. Among his best-known works are his Pavane, Requiem, Sicilienne, nocturnes for piano and the songs “Après un rêve” and “Clair de lune”. Although his best-known and most accessible compositions are generally his earlier ones, Fauré composed many of his most highly regarded works in his later years, in a more harmonically and melodically complex style.

Steve Cohen; (contemporary composer) received his training at the Manhattan, Eastman and Juilliard Schools of Music, and has composed a large catalog of symphonic, chamber, liturgical and musical-theater pieces. Steve wrote “Fiveplay” a few years ago for the Atlantic Chamber players with an instrumentation of oboe, alto saxophone, french horn and bassoon. He later developed an arrangement of the piece for saxophone quartet and piano.

Gustav Theodore Holst; (21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite The Planets, he composed many other works across a range of genres, although none achieved comparable success. His distinctive compositional style was the product of many influences, Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss being most crucial early in his development. In 1906 Holtz composed the Christmas carol In the Bleak Midwinter based on a poem by the English poet Christina Rossetti.

Jordan Grigg; (contemporary composer); is a Canadian composer/arranger, conductor, teacher, violinist, violist, pianist, born in British Colombia 1972, began his musical studies with the violin at the age of 2. He has composed music for over 30 plays/musicals/films and composed 41 symphonies, 41 string quartets, plus many other orchestral, chamber and choral works. His entire catalogue totals more than 1500 works for orchestra, film and several different ensembles.