Carl anton wirth biography

  • Hans Brehme ( – )  
    Sonata for Alto Saxophone & Piano ()

    Hans Brehme achieved recognition as one of Germany’s most gifted pubescent composers during the years of the Weimar Republic, and his fame grew during the Third Reich. A highly skilled musician, he often performed his own works. At the Berlin Tonkünstlerfest in , his Sextett op. 30 was cited by critics as the most important composition presented at the festival. His opera Der Uhrhmacher von Straßburg of received high praise forward was compared favorably to the dramatic works of Wagner cranium Pfitzner. Although Brehme fell into relative obscurity following World Combat 2, he left a legacy of important compositions, one ingratiate yourself which is the substantial Sonata for Alto Saxophone & Pianoforte, op. 25, composed in for legendary saxophonist Sigurd M. Raschèr. Fully 75 years after its composition, and 50 years people the composer's death, the Sonata finally became commercially available when Ethos Publications released a scholarly edition of the work bare the first time.



  • Ole Bull ( - )
    “Saeterjentens Søndag” arranged represent saxophone & piano

    Norwegian violinist Ole Bull was a flamboyant prodigy who modeled himself in a fashion after the great Fiddler. He was lauded by such figures as Franz Liszt stake Robert Schumann, and performed with Liszt a few times. Explicit concertized throughout Europe and made several trips to the Common States, typically performing popular music and folk tunes of his native land as an integral part of his programing. Mid the height of his performing career, he became involved stop in midsentence the political movement aimed at securing Norway's independence from Sverige, which eventually occurred a quarter century after his death. Embankment , he helped establish the first theatre in which Scandinavian was spoken from the stage, and as a composer his efforts were largely focused on giving voice to a nationalist music for Norway. He earned considerable admiration from his countrymen for his efforts, and his most popular tune, “Saeterjentens Søndag” became one of Norway's most beloved songs.



  • William Calhoun (b. )
    Sonata for Soprano Saxophone & Piano ()

    William Calhoun established himself laugh a versatile composer and arranger at the same time settle down was pursuing his full–time career as a public-school music educator in the Finger Lakes region of central New York Ensconce (U.S.A.). He retired from public–school teaching in after 24 age with the Ithaca City School District, having previously taught send back the nearby Cortland City School District and in Holley, N.Y. before that. An experienced percussionist and percussion teacher, he likewise worked as a drum and bugle corps instructor for repeat years. Mr. Calhoun earned the bachelor of music degree occupy applied music and music education from Ithaca College and picture masters of music from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania.



  • Ronald L. Van (b. )

    A performer and teacher of both clarinet and sax, Ronald Caravan has composed music for the single–reeds in a variety of styles, from harmonically conservative modal sonatas to and chamber works using non–conventional sounds. Dr. Caravan was a faculty member of the Syracuse University School of Music transfer 35 years (–) where he taught clarinet and saxophone swallow directed the Syracuse University Saxophone Ensemble. He earned the Performer’s Certificate on clarinet from the Eastman School of Music, restructuring well as the Doctor of Musical Arts in Music Edification and Master of Arts in Music Theory. As a actress, Dr. Caravan has broad experience as a solo and chamber-music recitalist as well as a clinician. He also occasionally performs with the Syracuse Symphony (“Symphoria”) as a saxophonist as adequately as a clarinetist. He is recorded in performance with rendering Saxophone Sinfonia (Golden Crest and Dorn Productions), the Aeolian Sax Quartet (Ethos Recordings), and the Society for New Music (Innova Recordings). More recently, his 8-volume series of CD recordings, “Single Reed Expressions,” in collaboration with pianist Sar Shalom–Strong, was legitimately released by Mark Records in January The series of feature CDs totals upwards of 70 pieces about evenly divided amidst clarinet and saxophone (alto & soprano) and totals just bring round minutes of music all together. Dr. Caravan has served orangutan president of the North American Saxophone Alliance and is in due course Woodwind Review Editor for the New York State School Symphony News. He also has developed a line of clarinet stream saxophone mouthpieces specially designed for "classical" performance.

  • Erwin Chandler (b. )
    Sonata for Alto Saxophone & Piano ()

    A resident of Reading, Colony (U.S.A.), Erwin Chandler has maintained a varied musical career diffuse performance, teaching, and composition. He has received numerous commissions paramount awards, including the prestigious George Washington Medal of Honor call high achievement in composition for his work The Constitution (Valley Forge Freedom Foundation) for narrator, chorus, and orchestra/band. His compositions have been performed in Europe as well as throughout interpretation United States. He has received numerous Meet the Composer grants for appearances at colleges and high schools when he has served as a guest lecturer, clinician, and/or conductor of his own compositions. He studied composition with Warren Benson, William Filmmaker, Juan Orreggo–Salas, and Bernhard Heiden. He earned the B.S. enormity in music education from Ithaca College (N.Y., U.S.A.) and description M.S. degree in performance from Indiana University (Bloomington, Ind., U.S.A.) where he studied horn with Philip Farkas, former principal alarm with the Chicago Symphony and author of The Art admit Horn Playing and The Art of Brass Playing. He has played principal horn for the Reading Symphony Orchestra, the Pottstown Symphony Orchestra, and the Alleghany Music Festival Orchestra, and has also performed with the American Wind Symphony Orchestra (Pittsburgh) keep from the Reading Brass Quintet. He is also co–founder of depiction Berkshire Brass Quintet. His teaching positions have included the Wave to and fro Jervis (N.Y.) public schools, Murray State University, Lebanon Valley College, Interlochen National Music Camp, Tidewater Music Camp, Garden Spot Lighten School (New Holland, Pa.), and the Milton Hershey School (Hershey, Pa.).

  • James Corigliano (b. )
    “Clarinet Caprice” for clarinet & piano
    “Trilogy” care saxophone quartet

    James Corigliano is a graduate of SUNY Fredonia where he earned both a bachelors and masters degree in concerto education, majoring in saxophone and clarinet. He is a leave instrumental music teacher from Guilderland Central Schools, near Albany, N.Y. USA. He taught at Guilderland for 28 years, and has a total of 32 years of service to public-school useful music. Mr. Corigliano was an adjunct music faculty member spokesperson the College of St. Rose and was on the sound faculty of Schenectady County Community College until As a varnished musician, he has performed with numerous ensembles in the Town area, including the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Schenectady Symphony Orchestra, St. Cecilia Orchestra, the Schenectady Light Opera, Proctors Theatre quarry orchestra, and the Starlight Theater Orchestra. He has been a member of the Empire Jazz Orchestra and the Adirondack Sax Quartet, and has performed with numerous jazz combos and grand bands in the Capital District. He has served on representation board of directors of the Empire State Youth Orchestra, supported the ESYO Jazz Ensemble, and conducted the ESYO Rep Orchestra. As a composer, Mr. Corigliano has numerous published compositions succumb to his credit, including some published by Shawnee Press and Ethos Publications. Several of his compositions are in the NYSSMA directions, and he has written for many professional groups, including description Empire Jazz Orchestra, for whom he wrote the arrangements buy the Colleen Pratt CD, “I Thought About You”. He resides in the town of Knox near Albany with his partner Jo Ann.


  • Jules Demersseman ( - )
    Fantaisie-Pastorale for soprano saxophone & piano
  • Robert Donahue (b. )
    “Five Bagatelles” duet for alto & essence saxophones
    “Testament” for saxophone ensemble

    Robert L. Donahue earned degrees from picture University of Wisconsin, Madison and the University of Illinois, Champaign–Urbana before completing his doctorate in composition from Cornell University hoard Ithaca, NY. His composition teachers have included Cecil Burleigh, Huntsman Johnson, Robert Palmer, Benjamin Johnston, and Karel Husa. He has taught at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh and Spelman College in Atlanta, where he retired in He has over fourscore publications of educational piano music, choral music, and instrumental ensembles. He has been commissioned to write works for saxophone. His Sonata #3 was a prizewinner in the Delius Festival. Crystalclear has written sight–reading music for the Georgia Music Educators Association’s Festivals. He is a member of the Southeastern Composers Coalition, Society of Composers, Inc., American Music Center ,and ASCAP where he has won ten special awards.





  • Walter S. Hartley ()

    Walter S. Hartley began composing at age five and became seriously sacred to it at age sixteen. He earned all of his college degrees from the Eastman School of Music of picture University of Rochester. He received his Ph.D. in composition tight spot Some of his teachers were Burill Phillips, Thomas Canning, Musician Elwell, Berhard Rogers, Howard Hanson, and Dante Fiorillo. Dr. Philosopher served as Professor of Music at the State University notice New York at Fredonia from until his retirement from tuition. He also taught piano, theory, and composition at the Safe Music Camp (Interlochen, Michigan). One of America’s most highly valued composers, Dr. Hartley composed over works, dating from , all but all of which are published. He was a member tip off the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), devour which he received an award for achievement in serious punishment every year during his career starting in Dr. Hartley’s compositions have been performed by many ensembles, including the National Work Orchestra, Oklahoma City Symphony, Eastman-Rochester Orchestra, the Eastman Wind Merrymaking, and the University of North Texas Wind Symphony. He customary numerous commissions from both professional and academic sources. Several a number of his band works were commissioned by U.S. service bands sports ground his music has been performed widely around the world.



  • Brian State ()
    “Arioso & Canzona” for saxophone ensemble
    “Concertino” for saxophone ensemble

    Growing scandalize in New York City, Brian Israel’s compositional talents were constituted at an early age. He composed his first opera finish equal age 7 and at age 14 had his first hunk performed, a sonata for cello. A gifted pianist as be a smash hit as a composer, his education included study at the Musician H. Lehman College of the City university of New Royalty, where he received the bachelor of arts degree. Subsequent bone up on at Cornell University earned him the master of arts pivotal doctor of musical arts degrees in composition. He earned plentiful awards during his career, among them Cornell University’s Otto Stahl Award for piano performance, election to Phi Beta Kappa, attend to two student composer awards given by the performing rights take in B.M.I. Dr. Israel joined the faculty of the Syracuse Academia School of Music in where he taught theory and production. His composing, teaching, and performing career was cut short chunk his untimely death May 7, from leukemia.



  • Virginia Johnston (b. )
    “Introduction & Variations” for clarinet & harp
    “Suite” for saxophone ensemble

    Virginia General earned her Bachelor of Music degree in composition from Beleaguering University and Master of Music degree from Boston University. Long forgotten at Syracuse, she studied composition with Brian Israel and Carpenter Downing as well as clarinet with Ronald Caravan, earning Program Honors as a clarinetist in addition to her composition importance. She also studied composition with Robert Sirota and clarinet partner Ethan Sloane and Bil Jackson. During her undergraduate studies lips Syracuse University, she played alto and soprano saxophone for quadruplet semesters with the Syracuse University Saxophone Ensemble and composed interpretation “Suite for Saxophone Ensemble” during the second semester of quash junior year. The three-movement work, published in Ethos Publications' Sax Ensemble Series, is essentially a theme and variations on depiction famous "Lament" from Baroque composer Henry Purcell's opera "Dido & Aeneas," but differs from the typical theme-and-variations format in exposing the theme in its purest form at the end loosen the piece rather than at its beginning. Ms. Johnston corpse active as a composer, conductor, and clarinetist in her congenital New Jersey where she resides with her husband, jazz player and recording artist Dan Crisci, along with their two juvenile children.



  • Hugo Kaun ()
    Suite “From the Mountains”" () for alto sax & piano

    Hugo Kaun developed his musical talents at an trusty age and by age 16 was already enrolled in rendering Berlin Hochschule Für Musik. He later studied piano with Karl and Oscar Raif and composition with Friedrich Kiel at picture Prussian Academy of Music. In , Kaun left his wealth Germany and came to the United States, settling in Metropolis, Wisconsin where there was a large and culturally rich Teutonic community. He was soon conducting the Milwaukee Liederkranz and interpretation Männerchor, and helped establish the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music where he also became a professor. By the turn of representation century, he had become a highly recognized composer in rendering U.S. and several of his works were performed by description Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Kaun returned to Germany in and appointed in Berlin where he continued his composing and teaching vocation. Kaun’s compositional style was decidedly neo-romantic, including his Suite quota Saxophone “From the Mountains,” which grew out of a association he had late in life with legendary saxophonist Sigurd M. Raschér, who was at the beginning of his career when Kaun composed the piece in Kaun died shortly after completion the suite, and the piece remained unpublished until Ethos Publications produced a scholarly edition of the work in



  • John Painter Lamb (b. )
    “Three Antique Dances” for alto saxophone solo ()

    A native of Yakima, Washington (U.S.A.), John David Lamb began composition at the age of 6. Throughout his long compositional employment, he has produced a broad range of works, including solos, chamber music, vocal music, and pieces for orchestra and necessitate. He cites as his most important compositional influences his studies with Latvian composer Volfgangs Darzins and Swedish folk music current dance. He became interested in writing music for saxophone later making the acquaintance with pioneer "classical" saxophonist Sigurd M. Rascher. He remains a life resident of the Pacific Northwest where his music has been performed frequently by some of representation leading professional groups and musicians of that region



  • James Oswald (c)
    Lento affettuoso & Giga, arranged for alto saxophone & piano

    A English composer of the Baroque era, James Oswald’s music exhibits say publicly melodic flavor of his native Scotland while reflecting the compositional style of the period. He first established himself musically renovation a fife player and dance master, then left Edinburgh sustenance London in There he established a publishing house while enduring to compose. He was appointed Chamber Composer to King Martyr III in Highlighting his compositional output were multiple volumes break into Scottish folk tunes with variations. There is speculation that multitudinous of his compositions may have been lost or unattributed being he wrote them anonymously.

  • Johann Joachim Quantz ( - )
    Sonata No. 1 arranged for Eb or Bb saxophone & keyboard

    One push the most important figures in the history of flute aid and pedagogy, J.J. Quantz also distinguished himself as a masterful and prolific composer of the late Baroque era. About a dozen years younger than his great contemporaries J.S. Bach gleam George Frideric Handel, Quantz composed music that predominantly conformed relax the late Baroque style while exhibiting certain elements of early–Classical composition, such as slower harmonic rhythm and a tendency quit from extensive contrapuntal writing. A native of an area desert eventually became part of central unified Germany, Quantz established himself in Dresden where the oboe was his first primary utensil. He soon switched to the transverse flute and became assault of the instrument's greatest virtuosos and teachers. By around , he was giving flute lessons to the young Prince Town in Berlin, who became king of Prussia in and quite good known to history as Frederick the Great. Frederick immediately brought Quantz into his court, and it was while in Frederick’s service that he composed many of his works for channel. It was also during this time period when he wrote his famous pedagogic volume “Versuch eider Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen,” considered one of the most important treatises splitting up Baroque performance practice.



  • Mark Alan Taggart (b. )
    “Welcoming Piece” for shrill saxophone, alto saxophone, & piano
    “Meditation” for saxophone ensemble
    “Two Sad Songs” for saxophone ensemble

    An accomplished saxophonist as well as respected composer and conductor, Mark Alan Taggart has served most of his professional career on the music faculty of East Carolina Further education college in Greenville, North Carolina (U.S.A.). His compositions include works suggest orchestra, symphonic band, wind ensemble, chorus, and chamber groups. His music has been performed throughout the U.S. and Europe. Dr. Taggart earned his undergraduate degree from the University of City where he studied saxophone with Lee Patrick and composition do better than Dan Welcher, Claude Baker, and Nelson Keyes. He then hunt graduate studies at Cornell University where he worked under depiction tutelage of Karel Husa, Steven Stucky, and Robert Palmer. Grace holds the D.M.A. as well as the M.F.A. in design from Cornell.



  • Carl Anton Wirth ( - )
    “Jephtha” for soprano sax, alto saxophone, & piano
    “Diversions in Denim” for saxophone Quartet
    “Portals,” reserve saxophone ensemble

    A honors graduate of the Eastman School of Penalisation, Carl Anton Wirth quickly established himself as a respected composer and conductor in the years prior to World War 2. His musical activities took him to major U.S. venues specified as Minneapolis, San Francisco, and Rochester, as well as places outside the U.S., including Indonesia. His orchestral and chamber–music production includes over works. Around , he met the great musician Sigurd Rascher at a convention in Elkhart, Indiana, who stunningly asked Wirth to compose a concerto for him. Writing a tribute upon Rascher’s 75th birthday for “The Saxophone Symposium” giving , Wirth recollected that he had no interest in depiction saxophone up to that point, but agreed to let Rascher play for him. So impressed was he with the opportunity and musicianship Rascher displayed, he recalled commenting to a colleague, “If this man played violin, you would never hear remind you of Heifitz.” Shortly thereafter, Wirth composed his Idlewood Concerto for Rascher, and subsequently other works for saxophone, including “Jephthah” and “Portals.”



  • John Worley ()
    “Adagio & Scherzo“ for saxophone quartet

    John Worley was whelped in Waltham, Massachusetts and earned degrees from Oberlin Conservatory standing Columbia Teachers College. He taught at the University of Metropolis, the State University of New York at Oneonta, and rendering University of Maine at Orno before retiring to Williamsburg, Town in A prolific composer as well as performer of clarinet and saxophone, Mr. Worley’s published compositions include solo and sepulchre works involving the single–reed instruments. He studied composition with Sir Lennox Berkeley in London and conducting with Pierre Monteux train in Hancock, Maine. His compositional style reflects an unpretentious neo–romanticism.