Now spanning two recorded sets, Volume 2 (Neuma 235) by Timothy McAllister and Liz Ames (the Ann Arbor-based duo’s fifth album since 2020) adds to the 14 works on Volume 1 (Neuma 165, 2022).
Highlights include among the 17 new compositions:
• Wynton Marsalis – A rare chamber work from the Pulitzer- and GRAMMY®-winning icon
• Jennifer Higdon – A Fine Line, a melodic gem from the celebrated Pulitzer laureate
• John Wineglass – Wild Rhapsody!, a joyful piece by the Emmy-Award winning TV-composer
• Adam Schoenberg – Dance, a playful, groove-driven homage to Prokofiev and Copland
• Iman Habibi – Sulfuric Rivers, a haunting meditation on climate change
• Lembit Beecher – Baltic Crossings, inspired by Estonian folklore and family history
• Sean Hickey – Mutually Assured Destruction, a high-octane duel of virtuosity

Vol 2. is a channel-surfing mosaic of modern works reflecting broken dreams, wistful nostalgia, environmental fears, youthful opti- mism, the darkness of global conflict, and, ultimately, hope for a better world. McAllister notes, “there is a mission and a level of musical activ- ism behind this series of works, and nothing can speak to the state and richness of concert music today better than the saxophone.”

“We envisioned PROJECT ENCORE as a platform for music that defies convention,” says McAllister. “These pieces aren’t just add-ons — they’re gateways to discovering today’s most compelling composers.” Ames, a sought-after collaborative pianist, adds, “It’s been exhilarating to explore these works, each with its own story and emotional resonance. We hope they inspire performers and audiences alike.”

Available on all platforms on August 15! Pre-order and mark your calendars!

MAY 6, 2024 - Commissioned by the Lucerne Festival and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with support from New Music USA, Tyshawn Sorey’s alto saxophone concerto “Adagio (For Wadada Leo Smith)” featuring soloist and dedicatee Timothy McAllister has been awarded the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in Music. This represents a milestone on many levels, but, quite notably, this is the first instance a composition for classical saxophone has received this distinction.

Link to the full Philadelphia Inquirer article can be found HERE.

Dedicated to Timothy McAllister and commissioned through a generous gift by Gail Straith and the Michigan Orchestra Repertoire for Equity (MORE) Fund, this new concerto by acclaimed composer Adolphus Hailstork receives its World Premiere in Ann Arbor on February 2, 2025 with the University Symphony Orchestra under Kenneth Kiesler and its co-premiere and recording for NAXOS under JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra on May 30, 2025. Subsequent performances include its Chicago Premiere with the Chicago Sinfonietta under Mei-Ann Chen for the group’s 2025 Season Finale concerts in Naperville and Chicago’s famous Auditorium Theatre. Further performances to be announced soon!

For booking information, contact:
Martha Woods
President
Jonathan Wentworth Associates Ltd.
6118 40th Avenue
Hyattsville, Maryland 20782-3012
Martha@Jwentworth.com

Ann Arbor, Michigan - The New York Philharmonic released its 2024-2025 Season on 3/19/24 which includes Tim McAllister’s debut with the orchestra, and the New York City premiere performances of John Corigliano’s saxophone concerto, TRIATHLON! The concerts (March 26, 27 & 29), led by the eminent Leonard Slatkin, also features music of Cindy McTee and Shostakovich. More information found HERE.

Also released on 3/19/24 was the Grand Rapids Symphony’s upcoming season, which features the Michigan/Midwest Premiere of Corigliano’s TRIATHLON with the celebrated conductor, Lidiya Yankovskaya, on January 10 & 11. The concert, titled “Sax and the City” also features McAllister in performances of Bernstein’s iconic Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, and the original saxophone and trumpet version of Aaron Copland’s “Quiet City.” Ticket information HERE.

New Album Releases on the way!
Coming in November 2023, Naxos artist and Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic JoAnn Falletta will release a series of rarely heard American works with the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic. Recorded at the NOI Festival in 2022, the album features Paul Creston’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra. Often performed in its version for wind band, this recording documents the iconic saxophone work in its original orchestral instrumentation with the stunning musicians of the NOI Philharmonic.

The premier, UK-based Chandos Records will release in June 2024 Volume 2 of the orchestral works by Kenneth Fuchs, performed by the renowned Sinfonia of London with conductor John Wilson. Featured on the album is Fuchs’s “Eventide” for alto saxophone, strings, harp, celeste, and percussion. Recorded in London’s historic St. Augustine Cathedral and captured by the world-famous Chandos team, the album is next in a series of critically-acclaimed projects by the orchestra.

In October 2023, John Corigliano’s epic “Triathlon: Concerto for Saxophonist and Orchestra” will be recorded for Naxos Records by McAllister and the Nashville Symphony under the baton of Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero. This will be a new addition to the 50+ recordings by the Nashville Symphony in their Naxos discography, which have garnered 13 GRAMMY Awards over the years. McAllister and Guerrero reunite after their heralded San Francisco Symphony debuts in April 2022, when the Corigliano concerto received its world premiere.

Stay tuned for release information on these recordings and more in the coming months!

Link to CBS News - Colorado interview and rehearsal footage HERE

Excerpt:
By Libby Smith, CBS News
“Audiences at the Colorado Music Festival got a real treat. World renowned concert classical saxophonist, Timothy McAllister, played three saxophones in one piece. He makes complex music and complicated fingering look easy.

‘Really at the core of it, it’s a really beautiful work. It’s just incredibly athletic,’ McAllister said.

The piece is so athletic it’s titled ‘Triathlon.’ It’s comprised of three movements each played with a different saxophone, soprano, alto and baritone. It’s highly unusual to see them all soloed in one piece.

‘We rarely see them in a sequence where each movement has deep challenges that would require us to specialize on every single one of those instruments,’ McAllister explained.“

For more click on the interview and video above!

Timothy McAllister has signed with one of the most respected firms for world-class fine arts music programming, Jonathan Wentworth Associates, Ltd., which represents award-winning soloists, chamber ensembles, conductors and special projects. He joins a roster filled with leading names in the classical industry including guitarist Jason Vieaux, the Fry Street Quartet, violinist Mark Kaplan, conductor Michael Butterman, pianist Christopher Taylor, clarinetist Igor Begelman, among many others!

For all future booking, please contact:

Martha Woods
Jonathan Wentworth Associates, Ltd.
Martha@Jwentworth.com
301-277-8205

For more information, please visit: https://www.jwentworth.com/

Very excited to share this news! It is a dream to premiere a new work for saxophone and orchestra by composer/performer and MacArthur Fellow TYSHAWN SOREY at the historic Lucerne Festival with Elena Schwarz in August 2022! The work is co-commissioned by the Lucerne Festival and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra as part of New Music USA’s “Amplifying Voices.” The US Premiere with ASO is set for March 2023 with conductor Stephen Mulligan.

Click on links in “Performances” for concert information!

On April 19th, tune in to www.kdfc.com at 11pm PDT/8pm EDT (3:00GMT) for the San Francisco Symphony Tuesday night broadcasts to hear the April 9 world premiere performance of John Corigliano’s concerto, “Triathlon for Saxophonist and Orchestra” under the baton of Giancarlo Guerrero! Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle called the piece “a 30-minute extravaganza,” with McAllister giving “the piece the knockout performance it deserved, full of rhythmic agility and dynamic power.”

Ann Arbor, Michigan -

After a bit of uncertainty following its cancellation during the COVID-19 Pandemic, official word has arrived of American icon, GRAMMY, PULITZER, and ACADEMY AWARD winning composer JOHN CORIGLIANO’s new saxophone concerto, entitled TRIATHLON, to be premiered April 7-9, 2022 with the incredible San Francisco Symphony and GRAMMY-winning conductor Giancarlo Guerrerro!

The work features the soprano, alto and baritone saxophones across three movements, entitled “Leaps”, “Lines”, and “Licks”, respectively. This nearly half-hour work explores the full potential of each of the saxophones, and tasks the soloist to perform enormous feats highlighting the intensely acrobatic, yet deeply vocal, nature of the saxophone. This is the composer’s first solo work for the instrument, and his tenth concerto for solo instrument and orchestra, overall.

San Francisco Symphony FULL SEASON PRESS RELEASE HERE!

Link to the concert listing and ticket information on the SFS Symphony website, HERE

John Corigliano BIOGRAPHY, HERE

NEW STUFF cooking from composers Hannah Kendall, Marcos Balter, Flannery Cunningham, Arturo O’Farrill, Michael Gordon, Melissa Aldana, Martin Bresnick, Juri Seo, Bright Sheng, Roberto Sierra, George Lewis, Jungyoon Wie, James Aikman; plus recordings of music by Susie Ibarra, Tyshawn Sorey, Ravi Coltrane, Chris Potter, Nina C. Young, Joe Lovano, Emily Cooley, Terell Stafford, & Robert Capanna.

PRISM Quartet on the move…

Full Press Release found HERE

Available now on my YouTube channel in 4K HD - a micro-recital filmed for the North American Saxophone Alliance Region V Conference

Three Premieres from “Project Encore”
Timothy McAllister, alto saxophone
Liz Ames, piano

P R O G R A M

Karalyn Schubring (b.1999)
RISE (2020) -World Premiere- 4’58“

Chad “Sir Wick” Hughes (b.1977)
S.L.I.C.E. (2017) -World Premiere- 4’16“

Andrés Eloy Rodríguez (b.1970)
Diptych for a Lockdown, Op. 28 (2020) -World Premiere- 6’27“
I. Evocation
II. Aldemareado

For more information on Karalyn Schubring, please visit http://www.karalynschubring.com
For more information on Chad “Sir Wick” Hughes, please visit http://www.sirwickmusic.com
For more information on Andrés Eloy Rodríguez, please visit http://www.andreseloyrodriguez.com.ve

Timothy McAllister joined Maestro Thomas Wilkins with the superb Buffalo Philharmonic this past weekend, showcasing two different saxophone concertos on the same program across two evenings. The Buffalo News critic Leonidas Lagrimas’ full review can be found HERE.

(Excerpt)
“World-renowned saxophonist Timothy McAllister’s brilliant, crowd-pleasing performance was equal parts rock-star swagger and supremely polished musicianship.

Following the full-blast intensity and crowd-pleasing pyrotechnics of “Rush,” the more restrained tone and mellower lyricism of Aleksandr Glazunov’s Saxophone Concerto came across as somewhat anticlimactic (the program’s first half would have been far more effective if the Fuchs and Glazunov were reversed). Nevertheless, McAllister’s refined performance was as good as saxophone playing gets, a masterclass in phrasing and another reminder of this instrument’s full dramatic and musical range.“

Deutsche Grammophon and the Brussels Philharmonic will release their recording of new orchestral works by Guillaume Connesson, including his stunning saxophone concerto ‘A Kind of Trane’ with soloist Timothy McAllister. Look for it in March 2019!

Tim’s 2019-2020 Season includes featured and debut solo appearances with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, Seattle Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic, as well as return engagements with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Click on Performances for more details.

Timothy McAllister is featured on two different albums that are nominated as finalists in the classical category for the coveted “BEST CLASSICAL COMPENDIUM.” His performance of Kenneth Fuchs’s Saxophone Concerto “Rush” with the London Symphony Orchestra, JoAnn Falletta, cond., appears on the NAXOS album “Spirtualist” featuring four concertos by Kenneth Fuchs, and he appears as saxophone soloist in John Adams’s “City Noir” with the Berlin Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel on the box-set anthology “John Adams Edition.”

More information on the Fuchs album can be found HERE

More information on the “John Adams Edition” can be found HERE

August 10th marked the release of my recording on the Naxos label of Kenneth Fuchs’s Saxophone Concerto ‘RUSH’ with the London Symphony Orchestra and Maestra JoAnn Falletta. Almost a year to the date when this was recorded in historic Abbey Road Studios, it was indescribable standing in front of that legendary ensemble. My deepest thanks to all involved! Here is the link to the preview video

Look for it now on iTunes and other major outlets. Thanks for listening!

I’m very excited to announce upcoming recording projects with three of the world’s top orchestras to be released during 2017/2018 year!

City Noir - John Adams (recorded June 2017)

Gustavo Dudamel, conductor

Berlin Philharmonic 4-CD Box Set and DVD anthology of the music of John Adams

Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings (NOW AVAILABLE)

Rush (Saxophone Concerto) - Kenneth Fuchs (Released August 10, 2018)

JoAnn Falletta, conductor

London Symphony Orchestra

NAXOS Records (NOW AVAILABLE)

Saxophone Concerto “A Kind of Trane” - Guillaume Connesson (recording March 2018)

Stephane Deneve, conductor

Brussels Philharmonic

DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON

I hope you will be able to check these out! More info to come as release dates are finalized. Stay tuned!

What an honor to be part of this Nonesuch album that took home the 2015 GRAMMY Award for Best Orchestral Performance! An amazing tribute to the musicians and staff at the St. Louis Symphony who helped make it all happen. I am thrilled to reprise the Saxophone Concerto in January 2016 with the orchestra in St. Louis and on a week-long, Grammy celebration California Tour! Stay posted for more information!

I was thrilled when I learned the album, “John Adams: City Noir,” with the St. Louis Symphony and David Robertson received two Grammy nominations for “Best Orchestral Performance” and “Best Engineered Album.” The album has also been featured on several year-end lists for top recordings of 2014, including the Detroit Free Press, San Jose Mercury News, Rhapsody and National Public Radio, as well as by independent critic’s lists nationwide. It is incredible to see such attention for an album largely featuring the saxophone and new music, and I am so honored to have been a part of it.

September has been quite a life-changing month so far. I settled into my life in Ann Arbor, performed in a dream collaboration perhaps on the classical world’s biggest stage in Royal Albert Hall, and helped organize an emotional and inspiring tribute recital honoring the career and life of my predecessor and mentor at the University of Michigan, Donald Sinta. However, this week something struck me equally as deeply in my experience with the Utah Wind Symphony on September 23 in Salt Lake City. Only four years old, this group of professional freelancers and educators gave a rousing performance of John Mackey’s Soprano Sax Concerto with me to an audience of nearly 1100 people as part of a ‘send-off’ preview concert for the upcoming Midwest Clinic in Chicago (Dec. 20).

What struck me wasn’t simply the commitment to the level of playing, but the sheer dedication to the cause of wind band music and the deep sense of community. Led by Scott Hagen, director of bands at the University of Utah, and his wife and clarinetist, Myroslava Hagen, this group in four years has managed to achieve a level and following that rivals our nation’s military bands and other successful civic models such as the Dallas Wind Symphony, Northshore Concert Band, Lone Star Wind Orchestra, among many others. Yet, under this veneer, I learned that recently the group lost its primary financial support which now threatens the existence of the ensemble. Such disheartening news for such an amazing group of people and musicians. Amidst all the financial struggles we see with today’s major orchestras, news like this can be even more hurtful since a group like UWS comes together for the love of playing and the celebration of a very under appreciated literature, concert band music.

Band music isn’t simply trivial or purely pedagogical. It is a viable, ever-growing field of which many of today’s greatest composers have explored. More importantly, it often serves as the cultural center of most grade schools and college campuses. When we witness the rise of such an ensemble like the UWS, it helps a musician/teacher like myself remember WHY we got into music in the first place. The music. The camaraderie. The mission. These are not musicians looking for a hefty paycheck, accolades in the city’s major newspaper, or to rival the local symphony orchestra or opera company. They are performing together because they believe in the medium and the spirit of collaboration.

A vibrant community like Salt Lake deserves a successful ensemble like this to flourish for many years to come. They are not alone, as most cities/towns have some form of a community band, either amateur or professional. Get out to support these groups and their mission. It is the extension of a great American genre that never retreated after it’s rise in the late Nineteenth century.

Godspeed to the Utah Wind Symphony, and see you in the Windy City!

Welcome to my new website! New to the site are downloads for presenters, a news blog, and a press page entirely devoted to the John Adams Saxophone Concerto. I hope you will enjoy the functionality of the site and many of the new pics from the photography studio of RRJONES. Look for more updates in the days ahead as final tweaks are made, but in the meantime, take a listen to the clips, note any upcoming performances in your area, and add your name to my mailing list for updates and news. I am very grateful to Joe Dakroub for his design and assistance!

This site works best on a newer browser including Chrome, Safari/Mobile Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer 9+.