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For Saxophone Choir and Percussion
Duration: 19'
Dr. Chien-Kwan Lin, the Professor of Saxophone at the Eastman School of Music, founded the Eastman Saxophone Project in 2010. Intended from the start to be a unique and unprecedented ensemble, ESP performs all of its concerts without conductor from memory. Despite this (or because of it?), ESP has rapidly become internationally renowned.
Following last December's Holiday Sing (which included the Eastman Clarinet Choir's performance of my Hanukkah medley), Chien-Kwan approached me and asked if I would be interested in arranging for ESP. Of course I assented - but what to arrange? I knew I wasn't limited in scope (ESP has previously performed "The Pines of Rome" and "The Rite of Spring"), so I sent Chien-Kwan a list of options. He asked me to arrange "An American in Paris" for their fall 2017 program and "Pictures at an Exhibition" for their spring 2018 program.
Alas, the fall 2017 studio was smaller than anticipated and the arrangement was not performed. Chien-Kwan asked me to slightly re-score it for 19 saxophones in fall of 2019 for performance in spring 2020, which is the arrangement here before you.