I am just back from my fifth visit to Greece, performing at the International Saxophone Festival in Larisa, Greece. This annual event brings together saxophone teachers and their students from all over the Greek mainland and islands in a celebration of saxophone playing. The fabulous event is organised by the Greek Saxophone Association and my presence at the festival is with generous support of Yamaha.
I was fortunate to work with pianist Panagiotis Gianakakis. One of the pieces we performed was X Suite by Australian composer, Mark Zadro, a piece I had wanted to perform since I first heard in on the CD Australian Portrait by my friend, saxophonist Michael Duke.
The event takes a lot of energy and effort by all the teachers in Greece. Other international guests were Ryszard Zoledziewski from Poland and Korean saxophonist JinHo Keem.
Throughout the weekend there are rehearsals for the students leading up to a competition which is in four categories, organised according to how long you have been studying the saxophone, not by age. In 2019 JinHo attended the festival as a competition and won the top category saxophone competition. JinHo is now developing a successful playing and teaching career from his base in Paris.
My students from the UK have attended the festival over the years. In 2022 Rosemary Ball won the top category competition, performing the Concerto by Dubois. In 2023 Kezia Colton won the second category competition, performing Scaramouche by Milhaud. This year two of my students attended the festival, Pok Cheung Tsang (known as Timothy) of Durham university, and Kirsten Beveridge of Sheffield university. Timothy won third place, playing Demersseman Fantaisie.
All the international guests also give master classes and workshops. This year I worked with all the students to create a concert performance of my own arrangement of the famous Pachelbel Canon and also Nigel Wood’s Under the Veil with me taking the solo soprano line.
Many thanks for Yamaha for their continued support of this great event!
