I am very excited to share with you Quirk’s latest recording: Nine Pieces for Five Players. The album contains nine original compositions by Richard Ingham. The Quirk Saxophone Quartet (soprano Sarah Markham, alto Kenneth Wilkinson, tenor Chris Jolly, baritone Sarah Hind) were joined by Richard on soprano saxophone to record the pieces.

Nine Pieces for Five Players was originally commissioned by and written for the Plume Wind Quintet. When I asked Richard if he would write something for saxophone quintet, he decided to rework these pieces for two sopranos, alto, tenor, and baritone saxophone.

Several of the movements were performed in Zagreb at the World Saxophone Congress. We were very excited about the blend of sound created with the quintet of saxophones, which prompted Richard to arrange the rest of the movements. Each movement is very different, and the whole album incorporates many musical styles. Five of the movements feature a member of the ensemble as a soloist with the others accompanying.

There is jazz, latin, funk, folk, as well as contemporary classical influence throughout the album.

View the launch video on the Quirk Music website.

The album is available now at the Quirk Music store, direct from Largo Music, on Apple Music (iTunes), Amazon, and Spotify.

Tags: chamber music,Quirk,Richard Ingham

In a few days time I'll be back at the beautiful Knuston Hall in Northamptonshire working on the Saxophone Course for adult players with Kenneth Wilkinson and Sarah Hind. I look forward to teaching on this course every year, but I'm usually to be found there in August. We've taken on this course at rather short notice so there have been some late nights making sure we have everything ready for the course. Kenneth and Sarah will be there from Sunday, looking after 24 saxophonists playing in ensembles from trio and quartet through to octets and a mighty saxophone ensemble. I'm arriving later in the week as I have some other things to juggle, namely my son on half term holiday and my usual university teaching (it's nearly saxophone day!) There are a couple of workshops in the week too, Kenneth has written a great jazz tune for his, and I'll be talking about how to prepare for a concert with some top practising tips and also how to control those performance nerves.

Tags: adult learning,chamber music,Knuston Hall