\u201cThe Sage,\u201d<\/a> last year and received critical acclaim. It was heralded as one of the best Canadian Jazz releases by the Ottawa Citizen.<\/p>\nThe second free concert was performed by Xin Gao, an associate professor of music (saxophone) at Truman State University. Gao won the first place prize in the Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Competition in 2011.<\/p>\n
The two guests also helped give lessons to current music students, with Gao also providing a clinic that was open to the public.<\/p>\n
The Nebraska Saxophone Project is a quartet consisting of professors, alumni and professional players. Members of the group are associate professor of saxophone Paul Haar on soprano sax, graduate student of music Daniel Oshiro on alto sax, Bob Fuson on baritone sax and Wade Howles on tenor sax.<\/p>\n
When Oshiro was asked by Haar to join his saxophone quartet, Oshiro couldn\u2019t say no to his old professor.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Dr. Haar asked, I jumped on it. I said \u2018I\u2019d love to play,\u2019\u201d Oshiro said.<\/p>\n
To Haar, celebrating the birthday of Sax is very important as he sees the saxophone as one of the most important instruments ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cAdolphe Sax invented the most unique and popular instrument created in the last 200 years,\u201d Haar said. \u201cIt is one of the most influential modern instruments and is capable of such tonal flexibility and color.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nebraska Saxophone Project started as a way to connect saxophone players of different levels in the Lincoln area.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it would be a neat thing to do to bring students, amateurs and professionals together to perform unique music for the saxophone,\u201d Haar said.<\/p>\n
The small size of the group is one of the things that enticed Oshiro into joining The Saxophone Project.<\/p>\n
\u201cQuartet is really where a lot of the music making, at least in the saxophone community, happens,\u201d Oshiro said.<\/p>\n
Haar started playing the saxophone when he was around 11 years old, being inspired by American saxophonist Stan Getz.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was something about it that, for lack of a better term, resonated with me; the sound, the expressiveness, the color,\u201d Haar said.<\/p>\n
It wouldn\u2019t be a birthday party without cake, so of course there was cake for guests to enjoy in honor of Sax\u2019s birthday. The cake was something that Haar said would bring a new audience to the sax world.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy hope is that the sheet cake is going to help get people out of their comfort zones,\u201d Haar said. \u201cPeople will do a lot and sit through a lot for sheet cake.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the things that Haar said was important about this concert was reaching a new audience and showing them the power of live music.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s important for people, particularly younger generations, to support live music because it is truly special,\u201d Haar said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For The Nebraska Saxophone Project, their instrument of choice truly means a lot to them, so it made sense to celebrate the instrument.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s in pop music, it\u2019s in rock music, it\u2019s in smooth jazz, it\u2019s ubiquitous, it\u2019s everywhere,\u201d Haar said. \u201cSo what we\u2019re doing is we\u2019re celebrating the birth of this instrument through the birthday of the creator.\u201d<\/p>\n
culture@dailynebraskan.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Nov. 5, The Nebraska Saxophone Project performed a recital to celebrate the birthday of the inventor of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[79118,16380,146,85,46,79117,79119],"class_list":{"0":"post-125229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-adolphe-sax","9":"tag-birthday","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-nebraska-saxophone-project","14":"tag-saxophone-quartet"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}