Members of the Assembly Quartet.
AUGUST 30, 2022 BY STAFF REPORT
A University of Mississippi residency of the Assembly Quartet, a professional chamber music ensemble composed of Jeffrey Heisler on soprano saxophone, Ian Jeffress on alto saxophone, Matthew Younglove on tenor saxophone, and Adam Estes on alto and baritone saxophones, will take place September 12-17, 2022.
“I am excited that we are hosting the Assembly Quartet for a residency in the Department of Music again this year,” said Adam Estes, an associate professor of music and a founding member of the Assembly Quartet.
“We were last featured on campus in 2017. Events like these provide great opportunities for our music students—they will have the opportunity to engage with guest artists in master classes, and take away tangible and meaningful enrichment from their presentations and performances throughout the week on chamber music, commissioning projects, and functioning as a professional ensemble.
“The capstone event of this residency will be Assembly’s Guest Artist Recital on Thursday, September 15th at 7:30pm in Nutt Auditorium. This event will feature reimagined works for the saxophone quartet “+” genre by Avner Dorman, Alfred Schnittke, Bill Ryan, and Valerie Coleman. These works are featured on Assembly’s recent recording project, titled (re)Mix, which is due to be released this fall on AMP Recordings. Joining Assembly for this performance will be Colin Hill on drum set, and Stacy Rodgers, UM professor emeritus of piano.”
Formed in 2003, the Quartet’s principal objective is to engage with audiences in public schools and communities, working with students and audiences that often have limited experience with chamber music or with the music of our time. Assembly has completed week-long residencies in North Dakota, South Carolina, Michigan, Mississippi, South Carolina, and North Carolina performing and teaching in area schools and offering evening recitals. Additionally, the group has been featured in concerto performances with the Florence Symphony Orchestra, Motor City Symphony Orchestra, LOU Orchestra, Oxford-University Symphony Orchestra, and with the Minot Symphony Orchestra.
In recent years, Assembly has been featured on the Lake City Concert Series, Francis Marion University’s Artist Series, Sybil Center’s Artist Series, Columbia, SC Museum of Art’s French Impressionist Art/Music Collaboration, on South Carolina public radio, and on the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra’s Espresso Chamber Music Series. They are regularly featured at meetings of the North American Saxophone Alliance, the American Single Reed Summit, and at meetings of the World Saxophone Congress. Committed to furthering the saxophone quartet repertoire, this ensemble has commissioned and premiered works by Marilyn Shrude, Kurt Isaacson, Frank Wiley, David Maslanka, Simon Fink, Girard Kratz, Marc Mellits, and Benjamin Taylor. They have released two albums, and their third due for release in fall 2022. Their most recent album, “in search of stillness…,” is available on AMP Recordings. The Assembly Quartet is a versatile ensemble, comfortable performing a wide variety of styles from orchestral pops to virtuosic avant-garde.