<\/p>\n
A few of Scott Devlin’s students hold their saxophones as they watch their teacher perform a myriad of classical pieces at the Rehearsal Hall during the Central Florida Saxfest on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Fabio Braggion<\/p>\n
The rehearsal hall hummed\u00a0with the sounds of saxophones as Dr. George Weremchuk, professor of saxophone at UCF, kicked\u00a0off the 25th annual Central Florida SaxFest.<\/p>\n
To commemorate the anniversary, Weremchuk invited his former student, fellow music educator and UCF alumnus\u00a0Scott Devlin, along with Devlin’s son \u2014 another former Knight and professional saxophonist \u2014 Ryan Devlin.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to bring in internationally known saxophonists, saxophone teachers and performers to share their knowledge with our students, and also to saxophonists in the community,\u201d said Weremchuk.<\/p>\n
The festival began in the early 2000s, funded by UCF’s Student Government and the university’s Saxophone Club. Weremchuk then invites professional guests to teach attendees.<\/p>\n
At 9 a.m., the event began\u00a0with local businesses setting up tables just outside the performance room, showcasing saxophones, mouthpieces and accessories.<\/p>\n
This year,\u00a0Music Man<\/a>, Music & Arts<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0CE Winds<\/a>\u00a0presented a variety of items to attending students.<\/p>\n One notable piece was saxophones dotted with Swarovski crystals, presented by CE Winds. These glistening instruments, still playable, drew the attention of many students.<\/p>\n Following the showcase was a performance by Weremchuk and his saxophone quartet titled “Dolce Quatro.” The band is made up of different saxophonists from across Central Florida.<\/p>\n The four-piece ensemble had different types of saxophones playing at the same time. Frank Mazzeo played the soprano, while Eddie Marshall played alto, Weremchuk played tenor and Brian Smithers played baritone.\u00a0<\/p>\n Professor George Weremchuk conducts a saxophone choir composed of high school students from UCF alumni, and a former student, Scott Devlin. The recital took place halfway through the 25th Annual Central Florida SaxFest on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n Fabio Braggion<\/p>\n After Weremchuk\u2019s performance, UCF alumnus Scott Devlin taught a masterclass.\u00a0While usually a private tutor for high school saxophone players around Orange County, Scott Devlin helped a mixture of UCF students and his own during the festival.<\/p>\n \u201cA masterclass is really for somebody that has the tune pretty much down; it\u2019s not like a private lesson where we’re breaking down the basic elements,” Scott Devlin said. “They put months of work into it, and now they\u2019re kind of getting it tweaked.”<\/p>\n The masterclass involves a student playing the piece on stage, while Scott Devlin gives\u00a0advice or instructions on how to play the song better. He calls it a private lesson in front of everybody, where most students know the piece and are internalizing the lesson as if they were on stage.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s for students that are here that wouldn\u2019t have the opportunity to fly to New York,\u201d said Weremchuk. \u201cIt brings them on campus so students can benefit from seeing them, learning from them, meeting them, and they like to get selfies with them.\u201d<\/p>\n Many of the students from the masterclass stay after to watch\u00a0Scott Devlin take the stage and perform a suite of classical pieces both as a performance and another lesson to his students.<\/p>\n Scott Devlin took the SaxFest stage for the first time as a graduate student at UCF. While he studied, he played at Walt Disney World as a live musician, then moved on to be a private tutor for high schoolers and, eventually, his son.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen my son was old enough, we brought him in here,” Scott Devlin said.\u00a0\u201cHe was the young guy back then, and played in a master class; I wanted to expose him to that.”<\/p>\n Ryan Devlin was in middle school when his father brought him to SaxFest. During this year’s festival, he stood on stage as a UCF alumnus, graduating with his bachelor’s in music performance.\u00a0<\/p>\n UCF alumnus Ryan Devlin caps off the 25th Anniversary of the Central Florida SaxFest in the Rehearsal Hall on Saturday with his saxophone.<\/p>\n Fabio Braggion<\/p>\n As the day wound to a close, the event held its last two concerts. The first, a saxophone choir made up of as many volunteers as possible on stage, created the sound of one large instrument performing the same piece.\u00a0<\/p>\n The second, Ryan Devlin\u2019s concert with UCF professors\u00a0Per Danielsson on piano and Richard Drexler on bass, along with UCF alumnus Gerald Law II on drums, brought to life a song written by Ryan Devlin, titled “The Hardest Part is Starting”\u00a0\u2014\u00a0a reference to what his father always said about playing music.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was his first time that he\u2019s featured here, so that\u2019s pretty cool; really a full circle,\u201d\u00a0Scott Devlin said.<\/p>\n The festival itself can sometimes fall at an inconvenient\u00a0time for the Central Florida saxophone community.\u00a0<\/p>\n Orange County Public Schools All-County Band Honors\u00a0Festival, where many of Scott Devlin’s students perform, took place the same day as SaxFest.<\/p>\n Still, Ryan Devlin performed for those who could make it in the same place he performed decades ago \u2014 and the same place his father got his master’s in music education.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless of what your major is, keep playing your instrument, because it’s something you enjoy doing,” Weremchuk said. “It\u2019s a nice change of pace.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A few of Scott Devlin’s students hold their saxophones as they watch their teacher perform a myriad of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132805,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[4401,115,139,141,140],"class_list":{"0":"post-132804","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando","8":"tag-academics","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-orlando","11":"tag-orlando-headlines","12":"tag-orlando-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132804"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132804\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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