“In Jennifer Higdon’s 2007 Soprano Saxophone Concerto, Tim McAllister was equally amazing. He produced a clearly focused sound in all registers — and some were very extreme…Higdon’s formal organization also is quite free, but her single-movement concept kept musical ideas fairly compact. McAllister’s artistry helped.”
Gregory BarnesThe State, Columbia, South Carolina
“Handling the extensive saxophone solos was guest musician Timothy McAllister, who performed the work’s world premiere and who was brought in at Adams’ request. Although seated in the middle of the orchestra, he stood for the solos and played the jazz-inspired riffs in a nervy, improvisatory style, a highlight of what was a fine performance.”
David Fleshler
The Miami Herald/South Florida Classical Review
“hypnotically swirling lines and propulsive rhythms…brilliantly performed by all concerned and recorded with life-like fidelity.”
FANFARE Magazine
FANFARE Magazine
“(John) Adams goes for more than stylizations with [City Noir’s] wily jazz spine. Keeping a sweaty, smoky after-hours jam percolating were Timothy McAllister’s volcanic sax…”
Lewis Whittington
American Record Guide (Sept/Oct 2010)
“Dudamel led a bracing, propulsive performance with instrumental lines clear even in Adams’ most riotous contrapuntal moments. The L.A. Phil members covered themselves in glory with outstanding contributions…especially, Timothy McAllister’s evocative and bravura alto sax playing.”
Lawrence A. Johnson
The Classical Review
[Review: “LA Phil Brings ‘New World’ to Seoul”]
“Resplendent saxophone solos thrilled audiences throughout…”
Kwon Ji-youn
The Korea Times (3/27/15)
“the audience was left breathless by the astonishing virtuosity of Timothy McAllister”
Bertrand Hainaut
DIAPASON (France) (1/4/2018)
“…the music is dramatic and colorful, requiring all sorts of novel saxophone sounds…high level of musicality in the playing…the musicianship of Duo Nuova is impeccable. McAllister’s tone is creamy, and his fingering and tonguing are impressive.”
Stephen Max
American Record Guide
“Higdon’s Soprano Sax Concerto began and ended in a pastoral mood (a la Copland’s Clarinet Concerto) and featured smooth, sweet and virtuosic playing by Timothy McAllister.”
Scott MacClelland
Metro Santa Cruz
“Timothy McAllister flew through complicated passagework, produced high notes of arresting intensity and intoned lyrical lines with soul and playfulness”
Daniel Hathaway
ClevelandClassical.Com (10/18/14)
“Timothy McAllister delivers unusually pure and sweet tone”
Joshua Rosenblum
Opera News (February 2019)
“Friday evening, Jennifer Higdon’s lyrical Soprano Sax Concerto displayed the classical capabilities of the instrument and the musical talents of soloist Timothy McAllister. The music concentrates on song-like lines and emotional sensitivity rather than virtuosic fireworks, though McAllister’s gleaming tone and supple runs enhanced this fine work.”
Phyllis Rosenblum
The Santa Cruz Sentinel
“The [Cabrillo Festival Opening] concert’s highlight concluded its first half: Jennifer Higdon’s Soprano Sax Concerto…and it was superbly realized by soloist Timothy McAllister…This work is a significant testament to beauty.”
Jeff Dunn
San Francisco Classical Voice
“Top Classical Saxophone Recordings - Timothy McAllister (Scena and Visions)”
Mark Stryker
Detroit Free Press, October 2000
“Soloist Timothy McAllister proved brilliantly up to the enormous demands — vast spreads of pitches, disjunct lines that wanted to be as lyrical as possible and some dazzling scurries.”
Scott Cantrell
The Dallas Morning News (4/25/12)
[Review: ” CSO end year literally with a bang”] “The Prokofiev benefitted from distinguished solo playing by Chris Martin on cornet, Michael Henoch on oboe and uncredited guest players Lorna McGhee on flute and the great Timothy McAllister on tenor saxophone.”
John Von Rhein
Chicago Tribute (12/19/14)
[“SLSO fires on all cylinders with creative concert featuring ‘Bolero’”]
On Connesson’s ‘A Kind of Trane’: “Much of it sounded like dazzling improvisation…complete mastery of every nuance of phrase and melody”
John Huxhold
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (3/6/20)
“Mr. McAllister ‘has a singing legato matched with excellent and fluent technique…a superior performer.’”
Philip Farkas
Legendary Hornist, Former Principal Horn, Chicago Symphony
“McAllister’s beautiful high register rivaled that of a coloratura vocalist…”
Review of PRISM Quartet
The New York City Jazz Record
“It was Higdon’s concerto that offered the most sublime musical moments on the program…her saxophone concerto is an extremely lyrical piece whose ideas are clear and free of musical meandering…The work was played with warmth and agility by saxophonist Timothy McAllister…In the realm of contemporary music, finding a jewel amid the programmed mix is a rare music moment. And this concert delivered it with Higdon’s concerto.”
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.
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.
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!
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