New Zealand’s premier saxophone quartet, Saxcess, began its concert life with a Sydney Opera House debut in 1992, and has been performing in New Zealand and internationally since then. This year the group has its 30th anniversary, and was looking forward to a series of celebrations until Covid intervened. Greytown will now be hosting the main Saxcess Celebratory Concert. Leader Debbie Rawson says: “How cool is that – I couldn’t think of a nicer place to do it! We would love everyone to come and help celebrate our momentous 30th anniversary.”
The quartet will be presenting its usual smorgasbord of music, delivering tasty pieces ranging from baroque to tango and swing, some wild Klezmer, and exhilarating contemporary works for sax quartet. The programme will have wide appeal, as there will be something for everyone.
The performers will be Debbie Rawson on soprano sax, Michael Jamieson on alto, Tomomi Gladstone on tenor, and Tim Workman on baritone.
Debbie has already played in Greytown this year, as part of the sold-out Kugels concert. Her current goals are to continue to commission, premier, and disseminate the great works of our NZ composers, and to promote her two favourite chamber ensembles – Saxcess and The Kugels.
Michael studied in the Netherlands and France, and has performed with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Netherlands Bach Ensemble, and the NZSO. He teaches sax at Auckland and Waikato Universities, and is principal saxophone of the Royal NZ Navy Band.
Tomomi, originally from Japan, is studying for her masters in classical sax with Michael at Auckland University, is president of the NZ Saxophone Society, and is a dedicated teacher and cat lover!
Tim has played saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet professionally for over 28 years, combining his love of music with a career of drafting law for Parliament, practising his sax in his lunch hour in a disused room above the MPs’ swimming pool.
Saxcess: 4pm on Sunday 2 October at 57 Wood St, Greytown. Admission $30, students $10. Booking advisable – contact Ed and Juliet Cooke on 06 304 9497, or efjacooke@gmail.com.
