Drew Whiting & Kirstin Ihde, Daria Tennikova

media release: Mead Witter School of Music concert.

Free | No ticket required

Saxophonist Drew Whiting performs the Madison premiere of “Impressions for saxophone and piano” by Laura Schwendinger

Drew Whiting, alto saxophone

Kirstin Ihde, piano

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Program

Sonata Op. 29 (1970)        Robert Muzcynski

I. Andante maestoso

II. Allegro energico

Still and Quiet Places (2018)        David Biedenbender

Impressions (2023)       Laura Elise Schwendinger

I. Rêve De La Mer

II. Berlin, 1931

III. Silent Musing (on the loss of a beloved cat)

IV. Tidal Pools

V. Melancholy

VI. Finale

Intermission

Rhapsody in Yellow and Blue (2023)      Daria Tennikova

Daria Tennikova, piano

Sonata (2020) John Mayrose

I. All Set

II. Faux Patterns

III. All In

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Drew Whiting’s diverse musical interests have lead him to perform with symphony orchestras, big bands, new music ensembles, salsa bands, improvisation collectives and chamber ensembles, and also to present solo recitals of contemporary saxophone works throughout the United States. An advocate for new music, Drew has worked with composers such as Betsy Jolas, Erik Lund, Ed Martin, John Mayrose and Pauline Oliveros, and has premiered dozens of compositions by established and emerging composers. He is an accomplished chamber musician, having been awarded 1st Place at the 2012 MTNA National Chamber Music Competition as a member of the Cerulean Saxophone Quartet. Currently, Drew is a member of the Vine Street Trio, Coalescence Quartet, and performs throughout Wisconsin with the Water City Jazz Orchestra, Big Band Reunion, and the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra.

In addition to performing, Drew is a dedicated and vibrant educator. He has presented master classes at Grand Valley State University, Illinois State University, Lawrence Conservatory and Oklahoma State University, and has taught on the faculties of Illinois Wesleyan University and Spring Arbor University. Currently, Dr. Whiting is a member of the music faculty at Silver Lake College and the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh where he teaches courses on music and culture, music theory, saxophone, and co-directs the new music ensemble.

Drew received Master and Bachelor of Music degrees from the Michigan State University College of Music where he studied with Joseph Lulloff. He earned the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign where he studied with Debra Richtmeyer.

Drew is a Yamaha Performing Artist and Vandoren Regional Artist, performing on Yamaha saxophones and Vandoren reeds, mouthpieces, and ligatures.

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The first composer to win the Berlin Prize, Laura Schwendinger’s music has been championed by artists Dawn Upshaw (Tour 1997-2013; TDK/Naxos DVD), Matt Haimovitz, Miranda Cuckson, Julian Wachner with Trinity Wall Street NOVUS, Arditti & JACK Quartets, ICE, New Juilliard Ensemble, Jenny Koh, Janine Jansen, Eighth Blackbird, Mathieu Dufour, American Composers Orchestra, Franz Liszt Orchestra; Internationally at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Ctr, Times Ctr, Symph Space, BargeMusic, Wigmore Hall, Berlin Phil, Théâtre Châtelet, and National Arts Center CA; And at the Tanglewood, Bennington, Aspen and Ojai Festivals. Honors include a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, a rare two time Koussevitzky foundation at the Library of Congress commission, a Fromm Foundation Commission, a Radcliffe Institute at Harvard fellowship, a Copland House prize, Harvard Musical Association commission for the Arditti Quartet, Chamber Music America commission, League of American Orchestras/NewMusic Alive orchestral residency; And fellowships from the McDowell (10), Yaddo (8) colonies,  as well as Rockefeller’s Bellagio, Bogliasco Foundations, American Acad. Arts & Letters (Leiberson“mid-career composers of exceptional gifts” and Ives Scholarship), First Prize ALEA III Competition (1995), and an Opera America Discovery Grant for Artemisia in with  Center for Contemporary Opera in NY (10/18), at the Times Arrow festival (1/7/17); And with fully produced World premieres lead by Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (June 2019),  and with Trinity Wall Street NOVUS (March 2019),  and with Chris Alden, Lidiya Yankovskaya, and Mathilda Hoffman, conducting & directing, and in a joint production in Milan Italy (2020).

A second opera is in the planning stages now. Commissions include those from Miller Theater, an UnSafe commission for the American Composers Orchestra, New Juilliard Ensemble, Sounding Beckett (Classic Stage Co. Off-Broadway), Kennedy Center, StonyBrook Premiere series , National Flute Assoc. She has been on faculty at the Bennington Conference, New Music on Point, Irish Comp Summer School, St. Mary’s Composition Intensive, featured Composer at the Tallis Festival Switzerland (7/17) and Master Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts ( 7/2018). Her work on Cedille’s “Notable Women” (“hidden gem”, UK Guardian), review (Fanfare) “evokes a sense of serene mystery and infinite beauty.” CDs featuring her music (on Centaur/ Albany), received glowing reviews. A New York Times playlist review read “The chamber works grouped together on this captivating disc show off her acute ear for unusual textures..she sketches musical short stories of somnambulant fragility and purpose.” Review in Chic Tribune (of Eighth Blackbird) read “an acute sonic imagination and sure command of craft.”, in the  New York Times “The piece is darkly attractive, artful..moving…”, and the Boston Globe, “This was shrewd composing, the genuine article. Onto the ”season’s best” list it goes.” About her Creature Quartet just released by Albany Records on QUARTETS, featuring the JACK Quartet, nominated by Albany for a 2018 Grammy was reviewed in Fanfare by Colin Clarke as “The sheer intensity of both music and performance thereof is spellbinding, as if the passion of the composer for her subject shines through like a light.”

Her full catalog is published by Keiser/ Southern.