SUNY Plattsburgh Presents Frontier Saxophone Quartet
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. (March 8, 2010) - SUNY Plattsburgh music faculty member Daniel Gordon
will perform with the Frontier Saxophone Quartet, Sunday, March 28, at 2 p.m. in Krinovitz
Recital Hall in Hawkins Hall on the SUNY Plattsburgh campus. This event is free and
open to the public.
The saxophone quartet consists of Gary Scavone (soprano), Todd Pray (alto), Linda
Sullivan (tenor), and Gordon, (baritone). Scavone teaches music technology at McGill
University in Montreal; Pray is a music instructor for Peru Central Schools and the
director of the Adirondack Youth Orchestra; and Sullivan is the director of the Plattsburgh
High School Band and president of the Clinton County Music Educators' Association.
The program will feature works by Barry Ulman, Edward MacDowell, Catalan composer
Joan Josep Blay, Dutch composer Willem Strietmann, and native New Yorker Arthur Frackenpohl.
Gordon has been a member of the music faculty at SUNY Plattsburgh since 1994. His
responsibilities include instructing the saxophone studio, directing the college's
Saxophone Ensemble and Symphonic Band, and teaching various music courses in the classroom.
Gordon's credits as a saxophonist and conductor include appearances at Alice Tully
Hall and Bruno Walter Auditorium at New York City's Lincoln Center, the American Embassy
in Paris, the Circle of Fine Arts in Madrid, Pollack and Redpath Halls in Montreal,
the Kuhmo Chamber Music Hall in Finland, and several smaller venues in Canada, Finland,
France, Italy, Spain, and the United States. During the summers of 1997-1999, he was
part of the saxophone teaching corps at the Domaine Forget International Music Festival
along with the renowned saxophone virtuoso Jean-Marie Londeix. Gordon had studied
with Londeix at the National Conservatory of France in Bordeaux under the auspices
of a Fulbright Scholarship. He has also been the saxophone instructor at the Suomen
Työväen Musiikkiliitto summer festival in Finland since 2005.
The Frontier Saxophone Quartet, founded in 2003, is a chamber music ensemble comprised
of soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophones. Its members are active performers
in the North Country and Montreal. The name Frontier reflects the cross-border cooperation
that allows their musical collaboration to take place and the group's frequent performances
of new works that explore the "musical frontier."
Since its founding, the Frontier Quartet has premiered works by composers Dr. William
Pfaff, SUNY Plattsburgh associate professor of music; Dominic Dousa of Texas; and
Janne Ikonen of Finland. In addition to new works, the Frontier Quartet's repertory
consists of original works and occasional transcriptions for saxophone quartet that
exploit the sonorous and blending qualities of this group of instruments.