DESCRIPTION:
By David Krebs

Dennis Shafer, soprano saxophone
Concordia University, Seward Nebraska

March 26th, 2013

This is an improvisatory piece for electronics and saxophone. Program for entire concert below

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY, SEWARD, NEBRASKA
RECITAL HALL

VISITING ARTIST

DENNIS SHAFER, SOPRANO SAXOPHONE


TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 2013
7:30 PM



Partita in A minor, BWV 1013 Johann Sebastian Bach
I. Allemande (1685-1750)
II. Corrente
III. Sarabande
IV. Bourrée angloise


Six Metamorphoses after Ovid, Op. 49 (1952) Benjamin Britten
I. Pan (1913-1976)
II. Phaeton
III. Niobe
IV. Bacchus
V. Narcissus
VI. Arethusa


The Courting Duck a.k.a. Neuma 31 (2011) Claudio Gabriele
(b. 1963)


Arianna (1993) François Rossé
(b. 1945)


Sequenza VIIb (1969) Luciano Berio
(1925-2003)


Under the Under (2009) David Krebs
(b. 1983)




Concordia University is an institutional member of the National Association of Schools of Music





2010 marked saxophonist Dennis Shafer's concerto debut in Jordan Hall with the New England String Ensemble, Federico Cortese, conducting, performing Chemins IV by Luciano Berio. The Boston Globe noted "the difficult solo part was played brilliantly by Dennis Shafer." In 2009, Dennis Shafer released his debut solo album and promoted it in a world-tour with concerts in Paris, Bangkok, Lawai (Hawaii), and several US cities, including Boston, New York, San Francisco, Eugene (Oregon), and Lawrence, Kansas. He belongs to the internationally renowned BBCNASE contemporary saxophone ensemble directed by French saxophonist Jean-Michel Goury, which recently presented a full program at the World Saxophone Congress in Thailand.

In 2008, Dennis Shafer was presented a Legacy Award by Meryl Streep from the Creativity Foundation. A native of Lawrence, Kansas, he holds a Bachelors from the Boston Conservatory and a Diplome d'Etudes Musicales from three years of study at Boulogne Conservatory in Paris, France. In Paris, Dennis worked with several great composers and saxophonists, including Francois Rosse, Etienne Rolin, Yosh'ko Seffer, Francois Coutinaud, and Rico Gubler.

Parisian literary life and contemporary art laid the groundwork and inspiration for Sounds in Bloom, a poetry-music-movement-art ensemble he co-founded with poet Diana Norma Szokolyai in 2006. Originally participating in David Barne's Spoken Word in Paris and featured by Parissoirees.com, Sounds in Bloom now returns regularly to Paris for performances, including at the theatre Salle Edmond Michelet at the Cite International des Arts, where Dennis was Artist in Residence in 2006.

In Boston as a debuting impresario, Dennis Shafer has organized several masterclasses and concert series for composers, musicians, and poets visiting from Paris, Bordeaux, Rome, Estonia, and Sudbury (Canada). In 2009, his Yes We Can! 5 World Premieres concert, featuring works from visiting Italian composer Claudio Gabriele, made a splash with a full audience participating in surrealist games and improvisation. This year Dennis has founded a new music ensemble, which will host a Concert Series themed Choose Your Own Adventure, featuring dance, theatre, Soundpainting, and a world premiere of Techni-Calligramme, a work composed by himself and 5 other composers.

As a teaching artist, Dennis has presented workshops, masterclasses, and concerts at New England Conservatory, The Boston Conservatory, the University of the Pacific (San Francisco), and the University of Wisconsin (Whitewater). Dennis' students also make appearances in the Boston area music scene, with performances in Inman Square, Harvard Square, and Wellesley Free Library.

As a continuation of his inter-disciplinary fervor, Dennis co-directs the Chagall Performance Art Collaborative, which has a residency since 2008 at the OUTPOST 186 in Cambridge's Inman Square. The Collaborative explores the newest reaches of contemporary performance art, and has recently been selected by the Boston Globe as a Nightlife Pick. He is based in both Boston and New York. He has studied saxophone with Vince Gnojek, Kenneth Radnofsky, and Jean-Michel Goury, and Soundpainting with Etienne Rolin and Walter Thompson.