“One of America’s bright young stars in teaching and in performing…exceptionally gifted.”
Michael Segell
Award-Winning Author and Contributing Editor, Esquire Magazine
“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)
“The star of the show was the saxophonist Timothy McAllister, all pep and bounce and loose-limbed lyricism in John Adams’s 2013 Saxophone Concerto. It reads like a love letter to the giants of be-bop and swing, with orchestration as plush as a velvet banquette, honeyed harmonies from a choir of flutes and clarinets, and mirror-ball figures for celesta. At ease and alert, McAllister dazzled and crooned…an American dream of neon signage and slick city streets.”
Anna Picard
The Times (UK) (9/7/14)
[REVIEW: John Adams leads Cleveland Orchestra in riveting program] “The three-movement quasi-concerto featuring saxophone soloist Timothy McAllister conjures the dark and mysterious Los Angeles of the 1940s and 50s…McAllister soared beautifully against strings, vibraphone, and solo horn.”
Kevin McLaughlin
Cleveland Plain Dealer (April 2024)
“Mr. McAllister ‘has a singing legato matched with excellent and fluent technique…a superior performer.’”
Philip Farkas
Legendary Hornist, Former Principal Horn, Chicago Symphony
“No doubt this disc will be much studied and admired by saxophonists and certainly deserves hearing among a still wider audience…remarkably good and thought provoking”
Robert McColley
Fanfare Magazine - Review of Visions
“The [Adams] concerto did not disappoint, with the orchestra joined on stage by American saxophonist Tim McAllister, whose jazz-style meanderings splendidly showcased the instrument’s power and agility in the first movement. The second and final movement saw an explosion of energy…McAllister remained supremely in control of the work’s demanding semiquaver passages; octave leaps were frequent and jarring”
Hallam Fulcher
Limelight Magazine (ABC Australia), Aug 2013