Anticipation filled the room as the lights of Magale Recital Hall dimmed. The murmur of the crowd died down as the wind symphony of Northwestern State University of Louisiana began the recital.
On Feb. 24, the wind symphony of NSU had a special guest, The Iridium Quartet, in honor of SaxFest. Which is held at NSU from Feb. 23-24, on the first day The Iridium Quartet held a masterclass and a guest recital for the NSU students. Following that Monday, they performed a recital at 7:30 p.m.
Paul Forsyth, the director of SaxFest and a saxophone professor at NSU, shared that the event is held to show aspiring saxophonists why NSU can be a great choice for their university studies.
“The NSU SaxFest is put on every year to primarily benefit the saxophone students at NSU and really saxophonists throughout the region. The impact that events like SaxFest have on saxophone students is immeasurable. It’s not often you get to hear and experience performers and artists of this caliber live and in-person,” Forsyth said.
On Feb 24. the program consisted of three songs, including the collaboration of the special guest and the wind ensemble: “Variations on America” by Charles Ives, Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Wind Ensemble featuring The Iridium Quartet by David Maslanka and “El Camino Real” by Alfred Reed.
“It was three pieces, two of them are classic bandworks and one of them involved our guest from this weekend, The Iridium Quartet. The first piece that we played was ‘Variations on America’ and it’s exactly as it sounds a variation of the tune of my country,” Anthony Pursell, director of bands, said.
The next song was the concerto for saxophone collaboration between the wind ensemble and The Iridium Quartet. It was a composition by David Maslanka.
“That was a piece that (Iridium Quartet) they actually helped commission or bring back to life in the late 2000s, I believe,” Pursell said.
Marcos Colon, alto player in The Iridium Quartet, explained that, “This performance meant a lot, specially because the last time we played together was six years ago, since before COVID-19.”
Students were able to learn and enjoy the Quartet’s performance along with getting helpful tips from them.
“We gave them comments, we helped them out with their music and spent time with them and also performed three pieces for them. Also at the end, we joined everyone that came and we played a big saxophone ensemble,” Colon said.
Students finished the recital with “El Camino Real.”
“A lot of our students who are international, particularly Honduran and Colombian, have some connection with ‘El Camino Real’ but tonight was a celebration in America not only North America but South America as well,” Pursell said.
Ending the night with applause and cheers for both the wind symphony and The Tridium Quartet, many students found it inspiring to see passion come to life through performance.
