Monday, January 17, 2005
Number One

Greetings and welcome to my blog at Sequenza21. I'm excited to have this opportunity to open a discussion with you and share my thoughts about new music, making music, and surviving and thriving as a new music performer in today's cultural marketplace.

I'm a concert saxophonist and have been fortunate to work with many outstanding artists, ensembles, and composers throughout my career. I aim to bring my perspective as working musician to our discussion--making connections, collaborating with composers, finding work, traveling, establishing one's own voice, and so on. In addition to commenting on everyday issues that I face as a performer, I also hope to use this as a forum to feature composers whose music I feel strongly about in the form of a monthly "Composer Profile" and to advance issues that I find relevant to today's musical climate. And of course there may be times when the saxophone comes to the forefront of our discussion! At any rate, I have many things say and look forward to your comments, which I'm sure will enhance and inform the exchange and give me plenty to think about.

Part journal, part op-ed page, part showcase, and perhaps sometimes part soapbox, I sincerely hope that this blog will facilitate many lively discussions. So for now, be well. I'll see you soon.
Praised by The New York Times as "an inventive musician . . . fresh and surprising," saxophonist Brian Sacawa has firmly established himself as an important contemporary voice for his instrument. He is active as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician throughout the United States and is the co-founder of the new music duo Non-Zero with percussionist Timothy Feeney.

He has given premieres of over thirty works by both established and emerging composers, including Michael Gordon, Bright Sheng, Andrew Mead, Oliver Schneller, Ken Ueno, Beata Moon, Hillary Zipper, and Scott McAllister, among many others. Named the Baltimore CITYPAPER’s Critic’s Choice for Classical Music in 2002, he is the recipient of awards for solo performance from both national and international competitions.

Sacawa's versatile career has led to appearances with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony, Harvard Group for New Music, New Music Brandeis, Bargemusic, and at meetings of the ISU Contemporary Music Festival, World Saxophone Congress, North American Saxophone Alliance, and New England Saxophone Symposium.

Brian holds degrees from the University of Michigan, the Peabody Conservatory, and the University of Massachusetts – Amherst, where he studied with Donald Sinta, Gary Louie, and Lynn Klock. He has recorded for the Equililbrium, Naxos, and BiBimBop recording labels.

See Brian's other blog
Sounds Like Now