“McAllister precisely conveyed the mood of every stylistic alley into which Bolcom peered. His saxophone delivered dialogue, as well as notes, as he brought his own experiences to Bolcom’s hodgepodge of a musical canvas…the arrangement of John Williams’ Catch Me If You Can score gives plenty of opportunity to display his technical wizardry and dynamic control.”
Gregory Sullivan Isaacs
Critic, Theater Jones: Arts News in North Texas
“the saxophone concerto that accompanies City Noir carries bebop in its DNA, and soloist Timothy McAllister is simply outstanding.”
Anastasia Tsioulcas
NPR Music's 25 Favorite Albums of 2014 (So Far)
“Inspired by the work of jazz sax legend John Coltrane, for the American Premiere this weekend, Mr. McAllister played all three movements with superb virtuosity and artistic sensitivity…this is the music Philip Marlowe would hear as he sat in a late-night jazz club where the air was thick with smoke and regret. Mr. McAllister’s performance was moving and compelling.”
Chuck Lavazzi
KDHK 88.1 Community Media - St. Louis (March 2020)
“Adams’ new Saxophone Concerto, which had its first local performance with Timothy McAllister as the extravagantly focused soloist, marks a wonderfully important addition to the repertoire. Much of it comes at the listener in fast, breathless waves, like a cross between a Romantic concerto and a Charlie Parker solo; the contrasting episodes sustain a lustrous, debonair edge” Link to...
Joshua Kosman
San Francisco Chronicle (2/1/16)
“McAllister is at the center of what’s probably the most mainstream classical saxophone disc of the decade - John Adams’ City Noir and Saxophone Concerto on Nonesuch”
David Patrick Stearns
The Philadelphia Inquirer (April 2014)
“Relatively few classical composers have given the instrument a successful spotlight, but John Adams is out to change that with his new Saxophone Concerto…a gleaming vehicle for virtuoso saxophonist Timothy McAllister. He nails the fluent angularity and punchiness in the music with a lyrical touch somewhere comfortably between jazz and classical styles”
Tom Huizenga
Deceptive Cadence from NPR Classical (June 12, 2014)
“Fuchs’s concerto, Rush, allows for some of the more rhapsodic style for the beautiful beginning movement which also sets up the primary material for the work. With excellent virtuosic writing, Fuchs shifts between jazz and classical worlds. Blues injections connect to the former while a later passacaglia blends the two worlds. McAllister is matched well for this work and makes it really shine from its gorgeous lyricism to its more exciting technical requirements.”