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Susan Fancher, soprano saxophone, Robert Faub, alto saxophone,
Steven Stusek, tenor saxophone, Mark Engebretson, baritone saxophone
The Red Clay Saxophone Quartet was formed in 2003 in North Carolina when the fates conspired to bring four internationally recognized saxophonists
together in Greensboro. The RCSQ takes its name from the area's luscious red soil. The Quartet's
repertoire features music by composers as varied as Ben Johnston, Burton Beerman, Mark Engebretson, Lenny Pickett, Alejandro
Rutty, Ben Boone, Steve Reich and Gavin Bryars.
Susan Fancher's work to develop the repertoire
for the saxophone have produced dozens of commissioned works by contemporary composers, as well as published transcriptions
of music by composers as diverse as Josquin Desprez, Ben Johnston and Steve Reich. She has worked with a multitude of
composers in the creation and interpretation of new music including Terry Riley, Michael Torke and Charles Wuorinen, just
to name a few, and has performed in many of the world's leading concert venues and contemporary music festivals. Her
extensive discography includes a solo CD entitled Ponder Nothing on the Innova label and a recording on New
World Records of Forever Escher by Paul Chihara. Susan Fancher is a regularly featured columnist for the nationally
distributed Saxophone Journal. Her principal teachers were Frederick Hemke, Jean-Marie Londeix, Michael Grammatico
and Joe Daley. She is a clinician for the Selmer and Vandoren companies, and teaches saxophone at Duke University.
Robert Faub is an accomplished classical soloist,
chamber musician and jazz artist. He was formerly the alto saxophonist with the widely acclaimed New Century Saxophone
Quartet, with whom he performed extensively throughout the United States and in the Netherlands. He appears on New Century's
recordings A New Century Christmas and Standards.
As a soloist, he gave the first performance of Ben Boone's concerto Squeeze with
the University of South Carolina Symphony, adding to a long list of works he has premiered. His recording of Andrew
Simpson's Exhortation, included on Arizona University Recording's America's Millenial Tribute to Adolphe Sax, was "immaculately played," according to The Double Bassist magazine.
Robert is the Director of Bands at Caldwell Academy in Greensboro, NC. He also shepherds an accomplished studio of young private
students, plays extensively with local jazz combos and appears regularly with the North Carolina, Greensboro and Winston-Salem
Symphonies.
Steven Stusek is Assistant Professor of Saxophone at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
He performs frequently with Dutch accordion player Otine van Erp in the duo 2Track, was director of Big Band Utrecht and is
a founding member of the Bozza Mansion Project, an Amsterdam-based new music ensemble. The list of composers who have
written music for him include Academy Award winner John Addison. His many awards include a Medaille d'Or in Saxophone
Performance from the Conservatoire de la Région de Paris, winner of the Saxohone Concerto competition at Indiana University,
Semi-finalist in the Concert Artists Guild Competition, Vermont Council on the Arts prize for Artistic Excellence, and Finalist
in the Nederlands Impressariaat Concours for ensembles. His teachers include Daniel Deffayet, Jean-Yves Formeau, Eugene
Rousseau, David Baker, Joseph Wytko and Larry Teal.
Mark Engebretson is Assistant Professor of Composition and Electronic Music at the University of North
Carolina at Greensboro. A former resident of Vienna and Stockholm, he has received numerous commissions from the Austrian
Ministry of Culture, STIM (Sweden) and the American Composers Forum Commissioning Program. His Duo Concertante
was recently premiered by the Wroclaw (Poland) Philharmonic. Mark Engebretson has appeared twice as a concerto soloist
with the Brno (Czech) Philharmonic Orchestra. He is well represented as a composer and performer on the Innova label
and has performed with Klangforum Wien, Swedish percussionist Anders Åstrand and the Intergalactic Contemporary Music Ensemble.
His principle teachers were Michel Fuste-Lambezat, Frederick Hemke, Jean-Marie Londeix, M. William Karlins, Pauline Oliveros,
Marta Ptaszynska, Michael Pisaro, Stephen Syverud and Jay Alan Yim.
Red Clay Saxophone Quartet
Sample Concert Programs
Deep Roots and Red Clay (a concert of twentieth century greats with connections to the distant past):
Suite Française by Francis Poulenc/arr. Jonas Forssell
Alaric I or II by Gavin Bryars
O Waly Waly by Ben Johnston
Six Bagatelles by György Ligeti
Every Thing Must Go by Martin Bresnick
French Connections:
Suite Française by Francis Poulenc/arr. Jonas Forssell
Premier Quatuor by Jean Baptiste Singelée
Variations sur Ah! Vous dirai-je Maman by W. A. Mozart/arr. James Boatman
Quatuor by Pierre-Max Dubois
Tango Virtuoso by Thierry Escaich
Sax Appeal (a program of classical
music that draws on the saxophone’s voice in popular music styles):
July by Michael Torke
Motherless Child Variations by Perry Goldstein
Saxophone Quartet No. 2 by Lennie Pickett
Alley Dance by Ben Boone
Tango set:
Tango Virtuoso by Thierry Escaich
Wapango by Paquito D’Rivera
Nunca Tuvo Novio by Agustin Bardi/arr. Alejandro Rutty
Don Agustín Bardi by Horacio Salgán/arr. Alejandro Rutty
Hyperlink from “Tango Loops” by Alejandro Rutty
Composers of the Carolinas:
O Waly Waly by Ben Johnston
Off on a Tangent by Ronald Parks
Prodigal Child by John Fitz Rogers
Alley Dance by Ben Boone
Saxophone Quartet by Alejandro Rutty
Maximum-Minimum (an engaging, beautiful
program of post-minimal repertoire):
New York Counterpoint (1985/1995) by Steve Reich/tr. Susan Fancher
Duke Meets Mort by Robert Carl
Alaric I or II by Gavin Bryars
Four5 by John Cage
July by Michael Torke
Never Too Tango! (in collaboration
with Lorena Guillén Tango Duo):
Spend an evening reveling in the
glorious tango music of Argentina!
Tikvah: A multi-media oratorio by Burton Beerman for saxophone quartet, soprano
voice, dancer and video, based on memoirs of Philip Markowicz, Torah scholar and Holocaust survivor
Tikvah Suite: A 20-minute suite of music from the oratorio, for saxophone
quartet and orchestra
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