Matthew Koester

UW Mead Witter School of Music faculty concert. $15.

media release: Matthew Koester, saxophone; James Waldo, cello; Forrest Howell, piano

Program

The Composer’s Companions* (2023)       Laura Schwendinger (b. 1962)

Sonata for alto saxophone and cello (1995)       Edison Denisov (1929-1996)

I. Allegro Risoluto

II. Tranquillo

III. Moderato

Pause

Sequenza VIIb (1969/1993)       Luciano Berio (1925-2003)

A Sonata for When Time Stands Still (2020)       Saad Haddad (b. 1992)

*World premiere

……

Celebrated for his “commitment to stellar sound and control” by Quebec’s La Tribune and “gorgeous sonority” by the South Florida Classical Review, saxophonist Matthew Koester enjoys a vibrant career as an educator, chamber musician, and soloist across North America. His recent engagements include performances with the New World Symphony, Flint Symphony Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Southwest Michigan Symphony, and the premiere of an opera by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom. He recently joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music faculty, where he teaches applied classical saxophone and chamber music.

As tenor saxophonist with the Aero Quartet, Matthew received a Gold Medal at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and top prizes at the New Orleans Chamber Music Festival and Music Teachers National Association Competitions. Aero engages Midwest audiences and communities through neighborhood concerts, K-12 school visits, and chamber music series appearances, including the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings and Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts broadcasted on Chicago WFMT Radio. The quartet will debut new works in its upcoming seasons by composers Jennifer Higdon, Viet Cuong, and Amanda Harberg.

Matthew values close collaboration with friends and colleagues and regularly premieres commissioned works on recitals in the US and Canada. He earned prizes at the Prix Orford Musique in Montréal, the MTNA National Young Artist Competition, and appears on the Naxos label’s American Classics series with conductor James Judd. In addition to his role at the Mead Witter School of Music, Matthew is a teaching artist at the Conservatoire de musique de Rimouski’s annual Symposium de Saxophone and a frequent masterclass clinician at universities across the US.

A native of Albuquerque, NM, he is a graduate of the University of New Mexico and a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Michigan. His primary teachers include Timothy McAllister, Eric Lau, Glenn Kostur, and Andrew Bishop.