“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.”
“McAllister was phenomenal, giving a dazzling performance that rocked the audience to its feet for a prolonged and well-deserved ovation”
“Timothy McAllister brings his inimitable, classical sax playing to the stunning piano playing of Liz Ames here, where both minimalism and modernism fill the Latin, jazz, funk and theater nods across these daring 14 tracks…A very unique listen that embraces abstract pop moments as well as rich moments of dramatic swells, McAllister and Ames create a highly atypical version of contemporary classical sounds that requires repeated listens.”
“The virtuosic writing makes uncompromising demands on the soloist, challenges to which Timothy McAllister rose most impressively, maintaining a fullness of tone where Adams’s writing is lyrical while handling some incredibly difficult fast passages with commendable ease and clarity…Adams has enriched the sparse repertoire with an impressively argued structure”
“…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.”
“The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra paired the Eroica with a relatively new piece by John Adams, featuring saxophone virtuoso Timothy McAllister, for whom it was composed. It’s a daunting, virtuosic piece of work, a half-hour long, two-movement piece that allows the soloist almost no rest for its duration…McAllister’s signature sound is gorgeous–smooth and liquid–very similar to a clarinet in the middle register, and only a touch meatier at the bottom and top”
“This new recording reunites conductor, orchestra and record label and adds a first-class soloist, saxophonist Timothy McAllister. “City Noir,” which gets some of its inspiration from movies like “Double Indemnity,” begins with hyperkinetic power shifting to ominous quiet and melancholy passages for McAllister’s soulful alto sax…performances are all superb…the jazz-filled Saxophone Concerto was written specifically for McAllister, and his performance, well-supported by Robertson,...
