Special Project — Weekend Traveler
An unusual program that opens and closes with two of Schubert’s most beloved and dramatic string quartets.
Optional Special Guest Artist: DAVID CUTLER, composer, narrator, pianist/percussionist

Pack your bags! The New Century Saxophone Quartet is getting ready to celebrate its 30-year international performing career with a special performance project, “Weekend Traveler.” This program explores folk music as heard through the ears of Copland, Shostakovich, Piazzolla, and Grainger, and others alongside sophisticated adaptations of original folk music from the United States, Eastern Europe and Asia, Latin America, and the British Isles.

The program features the music and collaboration of classical/jazz composer, narrator, pianist, and percussionist David Cutler, whose works have been commissioned and performed by Alabama and Colorado Symphonies, jazz artists Nancy Wilson and Benny Golson, and classical/klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer. (A version of the program for saxophone quartet alone is also available.) New Century has commissioned Culter to create three works. Weekend Traveler is a saxophone quartet that explores the folk music of the lands of the quartet member’s ancestors – Ireland, Bulgaria, New Orleans, and Africa. El Alcarán (The Scorpion) for saxophone quartet and percussion, comes out of the Colombian folk tradition. The third work, for saxophone quartet and piano, is built on Asian folk music traditions.

RUSSIA and EASTERN EUROPE
Shostakovich: Folk Dances (arr. José Riojas)
Gurdjieff/De Hartmann: Suite from “Asian Songs and Rhythms” (arr. Ben Johnston)

SCOTLAND and ENGLAND
Robert Burns: Suite (arr. Paul Harvey)
Ben Johnston: O Waly Waly Variations

LATIN AMERICA
Piazzolla: L’histoire du Tango (arr. Claude Voirpy)
David Cutler: El Alacrán for Saxophone Quartet & Percussion (program with Cutler only)
—OR (program with saxophone quartet only)— Traditional: Mariachi Folk Tunes (arr. José Riojas)

    —Intermission—

ASIA (program with Cutler only)
David Cutler: New Work for Saxophone Quartet & Piano, based on Asian influences

UNITED STATES
Traditional: Five Miles from Home, My Lord What a Morning, Shenandoah, Civil War Minstrel Medley (arr. Glenn Haynes)
Copland: Variations on a Shaker Melody from Appalachian Spring (arr. José Riojas)

BRITISH ISLES
Grainger: Molly on the Shore and Lincolnshire Posy (arr. José Riojas)
Stephen Pollock: O Northern Star

IRELAND, BULGARIA, NEW ORLEANS, AFRICA
David Cutler: Songs for the Weekend Traveler


Program 1 — Classics
1. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 (three to four contrapuncti)
2. Jean Baptiste Singelée: Premier Quatuor, Op. 53 (1857)
    OR— David Lang: Revolutionary Etudes (2006*)
    —Intermission—
3. Glazunov: Quartet for Saxophones in B-flat major, Op. 109 (1934)
4. Gershwin (arr. Riojas): Selections from Porgy & Bess (1935)
    OR— Mozart (arr. Boatman): Variations in C major, K. 265 “Ah, vous dirai-je Maman”
5. Piazzolla (arr. Voirpy): L’histoire du Tango (1985)

Program 2 — Contemporary
The first half of this program is performed as though a single multi-movement work.
1. Bach: Contrapunctus No. 1, from The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080
    David Lang: Etude No. 1: (lyrical and hard), from Revolutionary Etudes (2006*)
    Bach: Contrapunctus No. 4
    John Fitz Rogers: Prodigal Child (2004*)
    Bach: Contrapunctus No. 9
    —Intermission—
2. Piazzolla (arr Voirpy): L’histoire du Tango (1985)
3. Ben Johnston: O Waly Waly Variations (1999)
    OR— Barbara Kolb: Franciscan Chant (2005*)
4. Jacob ter Veldhuis: Heartbreakers (1999*)
    OR— Russell Peck: Drastic Measures (1976)

Program 3 — Jazz and Rock Inspired
1. Lenny Pickett: Saxophone Quartet No. 2 (1995*)
2. Jacob ter Veldhuis: Heartbreakers (1999*)
    —Intermission—
3. Bob Mintzer: Contraption (2001*)
4. David Lang: Selections from Revolutionary Etudes (2006*)
5. Piazzolla (arr Voirpy): L’histoire du Tango (1985)
6. Russell Peck: Drastic Measures (1976)

Program 4 — Light/Pops
1. Bob Mintzer: Contraption (2001*)
2. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 (two to three contrapuncti)
    OR— Mozart (arr. Boatman): Variations in C major, K. 265 “Ah, vous dirai-je Maman”
3. Bernstein (arr. Boatman): Selections from West Side Story (1961)
4. Rodgers (arr. Boone): My Favorite Things (1959)
    —Intermission—
5. Piazzolla (arr. Voirpy): L’histoire du Tango (1985)
6. Gershwin (arr. Riojas): Selections from Porgy & Bess (1935)
7. Russell Peck: Drastic Measures (1976)
8. Bernstein (arr. Riojas): Slava! (1977)


Program 5 — The Art of Fugue

Option 5A — with Misha Films animation
1. Jean Baptiste Singelée: Premier Quatuor, Op. 53 (1857)
    OR— David Lang: Revolutionary Etudes (2006*)
    OR— Other alternatives available on request
    —Intermission—
2. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 (twelve contrapuncti and chorale)

Option 5B — with or without Misha Films animation
1. Bach: The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080 (complete)
    A complete, 80-minute program


Program 6 — A New Century Christmas
The New Century Saxophone Quartet’s holiday album, “A New Century Christmas” (Channel Classics 14698) was released in 2000 to wild critical acclaim and was featured on National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition,” leading to a Command Performance at the White House.

“A New Century Christmas” is a series of delightful and moving arrangements of holiday standards by over a dozen composers from the worlds of classical, jazz, and popular music. Among the composers who joined in the fun were Lenny Pickett (leader of the Saturday Night Live Band), Ben Johnston, David Ott, Ronald Rudkin, and Lawrence Dillon.

“The aural equivalent of spiked eggnog. … Mixes festivity and funk; Lenny Pickett’s hilarious klezmer-style ‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentle Mensch’ is alone worth the price of admission.”
— CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“The New Century Saxophone Quartet has avoided gimmicks in this remarkable reinvention of carols that is the freshest Christmas CD I’ve heard in years. … The result are Christmas carols that come alive, rescued from the bin of repetition and jaded familiarity. … Throughout, the quartet performs sensitively, always keeping the carols — and their spirit — at the forefront.”
— PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE

“The New Century Saxophone Quartet is a breath of fresh air. … A New Century Christmas is unique. It presents amusing and ingenious arrangements of Christmas tunes by a diversity of living composers, and the results are fun and original. By refusing to be gulled by the Christmas hype, the quartet has created something fresh and irreverent — and it will probably still sound good long after the turkey has become soup.”
— BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

Option 6A (full length)
1. Bob Mintzer: Contraption
2. Bach: Selections from The Art of Fugue
3. Bernstein (arr. Riojas): Selections from West Side Story
—Intermission—
4. Ben Johnston (arr.): The First Noel
5. Ben Boone (arr.): We Four Kings
6. Arthur Frackenpohl (arr.): Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
7. Bach (arr. Frackenpohl): In Dulci Jubilo
8. Rodgers (arr. Boone): My Favorite Things
9. Lawrence Dillon (arr.): O Holy Night
10. Lenny Pickett (arr.): God Rest Ye Merry Gentle Mensch
11. Glenn Haynes (arr.): Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
12. Glenn Haynes (arr.): In the Bleak Midwinter
13. Lewis Redner (arr. David Ott): O Little Town of Bethlehem
14. Lawrence Dillon (arr.): The Last Noel
15. Franz Gruber (arr. Gorgon Goodwin): Silent Night

Option 6B (45 minutes, no intermission)
1. Ben Johnston (arr.): The First Noel
2. Ben Boone (arr.): We Four Kings
3. Arthur Frackenpohl (arr.): Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
4. Bach (arr. Frackenpohl): In Dulci Jubilo
5. Rodgers (arr. Boone): My Favorite Things
6. Lawrence Dillon (arr.): O Holy Night
7. Lenny Pickett (arr.): God Rest Ye Merry Gentle Mensch
8. Glenn Haynes (arr.): Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming
9. Glenn Haynes (arr.): In the Bleak Midwinter
10. Lewis Redner (arr. David Ott): O Little Town of Bethlehem
11. Lawrence Dillon (arr.): The Last Noel
12. Franz Gruber (arr. Gorgon Goodwin): Silent Night