Saxquest and Clarinetquest are thrilled to invite you all to a very special clarinet event THIS Thursday evening at our new West County location, September 22, from 6:30-8:30pm. Saxquest-West is located just behind the Steinway Piano Gallery right next to Midwest Sheet Music (see address below). We’re so delighted to offer an evening masterclass with St. Louis Principal Clarinetist, Scott Andrews.

Mr. Andrews will be presenting a masterclass in the relaxed environment of the Steinway Piano Gallery Recital Hall. This is an incredible opportunity to gleam some insights from one of our country’s top performing artists.

Whether you are playing for Scott as part of this masterclass or coming to just listen in, you’ll walk away with lots of new ideas and insights into the clarinet. Definitely try to check this out if you can!!!

Praised as “elegant” in the Boston Globe and “extraordinary” by the New York Times, Scott Andrews has been critically acclaimed in solo and chamber music performances across the country. A sought-after collaborative musician, Andrews has performed with many of today’s leading artists, and as an avid proponent of new music, he has performed with organizations such as Composers in Red Sneakers, the Auros Group for New Music, and Boston Musica Viva. He has toured and performed with such ensembles as the Ying String Quartet, the Calyx Piano Trio, and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, among many others. Andrews has been Principal Clarinet of the St. Louis Symphony since 2005. Before joining the STL Symphony, Andrews had been a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra for 11 years. He has also performed in the U.S. with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and with the Saito Kinen Orchestra and the Mito Chamber Orchestra in Japan.

Andrews has lectured and given classes throughout the United States as well as in Europe and Japan. He was for many years the Woodwind Department Chair at Boston Conservatory and a faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Center in Lenox, Massachusetts. June 2013 marked his third season as co-Director of the Missouri Chamber Music Festival, an annual collaborative festival in Webster Groves, Missouri, which he founded with his wife, pianist Nina Ferrigno. He joined the faculty of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, in July 2013.

Originally from Virginia, Scott Andrews studied piano and violin before discovering the clarinet, studying with Edward Knakal of Virginia Beach. He attended the Virginia Governor’s School for the Arts and also studied at the Interlochen Music Center in Michigan. He graduated with distinction from the New England Conservatory of Music, where he was a clarinet student of Harold Wright.

Saxquest West address: 2614 Metro Blvd., Maryland Heights, MO 63043

Be sure to mark your calendar for these upcoming Saxquest events.

Upcoming Saxquest Shows & Clinics
November 19 – 2016 Saxquest Woodwind Instrument EXPO – Sheraton Westport Hotel

Saxquest is honored and thrilled to host a FREE clinic/performance and open house at the shop on Saturday, September 17 with saxophonist, Alex Terrier. Alex is one of those rare musicians with the ability to absolutely captivate an audience and entangle you in his snare of musical ideas and creativity. Prolific as both a composer and a performer, his music is always fresh yet steeped in a straight ahead tradition. Alex will be performing with an all-star local St. Louis rhythm section (Eric Slaughter – gtr, Ben Wheeler – bass, Drew Weiss – dr).

“Alex is a very gifted and expressive saxophonist. He has shown in performance a very strong developing conception as a composer and a soloist.” – Joe Lovano

This will be an event to celebrate the new Buffet SENZO saxophone. Alex is a Buffet SENZO and Keilwerth saxophone artist. His quartet performance will be from 2-4PM but we invite you to come out either an hour before or hang for an hour afterwards to try out the new SENZO saxophone. We’ll have several here in stock in both copper and silver plate finishes. We’ll also have several Keilwerth saxophones on hand to demo. Al Maniscalco (Buffet Crampon and Keilwerth Product Manager) and Steve Rorie (regional sales manager for Buffet-Crampon) will be in the shop. This is a great opportunity to meet and talk with the people who actually make these incredible instruments.

Born in Paris, France, in 1980, Alex Terrier burst onto the scene with an energetic, passionate, and distinct sound that has captured the attention of audiences and musicians across the globe! He manages his own bands both in North America with the “Alex Terrier New York Quartet” and Europe with the “Alex Terrier European Quintet” and he’s increasingly present in South America. He’s also part of the legendary Mingus Big Band. His 2014 release, Alex Terrier New York Quartet (feat. Kenny Barron), is amazing!

Alex has dedicated his life to music and I think this quote sums up his passion succinctly: “My goal is simple: try to create some beauty and share it.”

Its an honor for us to present Alex Terrier to St. Louis. I hope to see you all out to Saxquest for this amazing performance and clinic.

Its hard for me to put into words just how exciting this announcement is. Saxquest is beyond thrilled to host a FREE clinic/performance at the shop THIS Saturday with 2015 Latin Grammy Award Winner for Best Instrumental Album and 5X Grammy nominee, Ed Calle (July 16 from 2-4PM). Calle is one of the world’s most respected, dazzling, prolific, and versatile musical artists and has become one of the most recorded saxophonists in history appearing on more than 1,200 albums, almost 9,000 singles. Ed will be performing with an all-star local St. Louis rhythm section (Adam Maness – pn, Ben Wheeler – bass, Tony Barbata – dr). Ed Calle is a living legend by any definition of the term.

YOU WANT TO SEE THIS SHOW!!! TRUST ME!!!

“Ed is likely the most versatile saxophonist on the planet.” – Michael Brecker

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Calle’s energetic, passionate, and distinct sound has captured the attention of audiences and musicians across the globe! He has recorded and performed around the world with music royalty including Frank Sinatra, Carlos Santana, Juan Luis Guerra, Arturo Sandoval, Phil Ramone, Emilio Estefan, Chick Corea, Michael and Randy Brecker, Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, Poncho Sanchez, Willy Chirino, John Patitucci, and the list goes on and on and on….. Calle’s television work includes an almost decade-long stint as saxophonist in the Sabado Gigante Orchestra and appearances as a soloist with various artists on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno, Late Night with David Letterman and more.

In addition to earning the 2015 Best Instrumental Album Latin Grammy® for Dr. Ed Calle Presents Mamblue, Calle also garnered a 2014 Latin Grammy® nomination and 2015 Grammy® nomination as a member of the Afro-Cuban Funk Super group PALO for their album PALO! Live. Among his many solo recordings, Ed Calle Plays Santana earned a Latin Grammy® nomination in 2005. In the Zone features original jazz compositions and jazz standards and earned a Latin Grammy nomination in 2007. His 2015 Latin Grammy® winning solo release Dr. Ed Calle Presents Mamblue, is an Afro-Cuban jazz orchestral spectacular featuring more than 115 of the most influential jazz and studio musicians in the history of South Florida. The first studio record by the World Music 5, America, features chamber jazz orchestrations of original and classic music from the Americas with an all-star quintet that includes Negroni’s Trio and violinist Federico Britos. Exploring the duo realm with his longtime friend and colleague Jose Negroni, Calle is also featured on the Latin Grammy® Award nominated 2015 Sony Records release Negroni +9.

From the White House lawn to many of the great concert halls around the globe, Calle’s compositions and arrangements are performed and recorded regularly by a myriad of ensembles ranging from chamber groups to orchestras. Besides being an internationally acclaimed jazz performer and prolific composer and arranger, Dr. Calle is in great demand as a jazz clinician and enjoys working with students. He serves as Tenured Full Professor of Music Business and Production at Miami Dade College. Calle has produced and released more than 10 solo albums, owns and operates 36th Street Music Records and Publishing, One-Take Recording Studios, and leads a variety of ensembles including Dr. Ed Calle & Mamblue, Ed Calle & Strings, Ed Calle & DoubleTalk, and the Ed Calle Acoustic Quartet. In addition to his busy touring schedule as a solo artist, Calle tours the globe as the featured soloist with the Afro-Cuban Funk Super group PALO, the Miami Saxophone Quartet, the World Music 5, the 14 Jazz Orchestra, and the Jaco Pastorious Word of Mouth Revisited Big Band. Ed Calle is sponsored by MACSAX Saxophones and Mouthpieces.

Its an honor to bring to St. Louis such an esteemed musician as Ed Calle. I hope to see you all out to Saxquest for this amazing performance and clinic.

We are thrilled to present the Saxquest performance debut of the Atlas Saxophone Duo. In doing so, we welcome a pair of supremely talented saxophonists who I guarentee will give an emotionally honest and refreshing performance. Classical saxophonists Jessica Knoft and Jeffery Collins will be here this Saturday, July 9, from 2-4PM.

With degrees in clarinet and saxophone, Jeffrey Collins enjoys an exciting career as a freelance musician and educator. For over twenty years he has performed with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under conductors David Robertson, Hans Vonk, Marin Alsop, Robert Spano, and Leonard Slatkin. He has toured nationally with the Jimmy Dorsey Big Band in the lead alto chair and has performed with stars like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Lou Rawls, Al Jarreau, Art Garfunkel, and Bernadette Peters, to name just a few. Jeffrey is a winner of the prestigious Coleman Chamber Music Competition, was a finalist in the Geneva Concours, and in 2016 was named a D’Addario Reserve Method Artist.

A specialist in contemporary literature and techniques, saxophonist Jessica Knopf has degrees from Bowling Green State University and the University of Missouri. As a soloist, she has performed in the United States and Europe and in 2012 gave the world premiere of Chen Yi’s “The Soulful and the Perpetual” at the World Saxophone Congress in Scotland. A winner of numerous awards and competitions, Jessica maintains an active teaching studio and is also on the faculty of the Community Music School of Webster University.

TUESDAY: June 14 (6:30-8:30PM) – Doug Lawrence featured guest artist with the Saxquest Jazz Orchestra at The Tavern of Fine Arts

WEDNESDAY: June 15 (5-7PM) – Doug Lawrence Quartet LIVE in concert at Saxquest

Tenor saxophonist Doug Lawrence proved invincible, his technique so fluid and his sound so huge as to dwarf everyone playing near him. – Howard Reich – CHICAGO TRIBUNE

We’ve got some very exciting news at Saxquest! Saxquest and Tenor Madness have teamed up to present two amazing performances featuring veteran tenor saxophonist, Doug Lawrence, next week Tuesday and Wednesday as shown above. As always, these events are free and open to the public.

With a sound as big as a house and pronounced influences from Dexter Gordon, Paul Gonsalvez and Ben Webster coming through in his playing, lead tenor-man with the legendary Count Basie Orchestra, Doug Lawrence gives a must see performance for any saxophonist or jazz lover.

Doug Lawrence is currently lead tenor with the 18-time Grammy-winning Count Basie Orchestra, the chair previously held by such greats as Lester Young, Hershel Evans, Buddy Tate, and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, among other legends. With the Basie band and his own groups, Lawrence has literally toured the world, playing on six continents and in virtually every major concert hall, jazz club, and jazz festival in the world.

Born in Louisiana, Doug Lawrence spent 25 years as a working musician in the New York City jazz scene. The list of artists he has performed and recorded with reads like a who’s who of current and former industry heavyweights, from Benny Goodman, Frank Sinatra, and Rosemary Clooney, to Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald, and Tony Bennett. He has appeared on over 100 recordings including four critically acclaimed recordings of his own. Be sure to put his latest release, Night Flight – due out this winter, on your Christmas list!

His Tuesday performance will be as guest artist with the Saxquest little big band (nonet). Joining Doug for his Wednesday quartet performance will be an all star St. Louis rhythm section featuring Adam Maness on piano, Ben Wheeler on bass and Drew Weiss on drums.

Doug is a longtime friend of the shop and it is a joy to present his musicianship to St. Louis. Mr. Lawrence is a TM Custom artist and we are delighted to stock these fine instrument in our store.

Please share these exciting events with as many people as you know.

Also mark your calendar:
Sat July 9 – 2PM-4PM – JEFF COLLINS & JESSICA KNOPF duet
Tues July 14 – 6:30-8:30PM – Saxquest Jazz Orchestra (at Tavern of Fine Arts)
Sat July 16 – 2PM-4PM – ED CALLE
Tues Aug 9 – 6:30-8:30PM – Saxquest Jazz Orchestra (at Tavern of Fine Arts)

Saxquest address: 2114 Cherokee St., St. Louis, MO 63118
Tavern of Fine Arts address: 313 Belt Ave, St. Louis, MO 63112

We are thrilled to kick off our summer clinic/performance series this year with a VERY special event. We welcome a pair of truly innovative performers, two players who are uniquely expanding the boundaries of musical imagination and the limits of what the saxophone can do. PEDRO SAXO & DEREK BROWN will be here at Saxquest this Saturday, May 28, from 2-4pm.

Individually, they are supremely talented, innovators of the saxophone and together evince a strong creative force to be reckoned with. They are simply mind-blowing and present a powerful concert like nothing you’ve ever experienced. Check out Extreme Saxophone x2.

‘Pedrosaxo is the Bobby McFerrin of the saxophone!’ – Jeff Coffin

‘Derek Brown – Solo saxophone like you’ve NEVER heard it before!.’ – CD Baby

You may know him from YouTube, check this out this fresh take on the 60′s iconic classic Stand By Me. Derek Brown has thrilled and enlightened audiences around the world with his ground-breaking “BEATBoX SAX” style, using innovative, mind-bending techniques to take the saxophone where it’s never gone before! His musicianship is mesmerizing. The freshness and creativity that he can bring to a standard is inspiring.

After pursuing graduate studies at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music, Derek Brown went on to be the Director of Jazz Studies at Abilene Christian University, in Abilene, Texas for six years. Now living in Chicago with his wife Rachel, Derek has hit the ground running as a full-time professional freelance saxophonist, a dream he’s had since he picked up the horn in middle school. Without any looping or electronic effects, Derek performs intricate originals and a surprisingly wide range of old and new standards: everything from Bach to Bieber! In his bold new style, Derek simultaneously mixes dozens of classic saxophone extended techniques like slap tonguing, multiphonics, and double tonguing, as well as many of his own innovations like striking the sax with rings, singing lyrics while playing, and even putting an egg shaker in the horn. All of these elements work together to create a surprisingly full, polyphonic sound (percussion + bass lines + melodies) all with one traditionally monophonic instrument, the tenor sax.

Pedrosaxo has revolutionized the saxophone. He has synthesized his many interests – imitation, acting, video gaming, and composition – into a breathtaking and truly unique artistic statement. Quite simply, he has obliterated all previous technical and artistic boundaries, and has achieved it in ways that are fascinatingly beautiful, haunting, appealing, and awe-inspiring.

Since finishing his saxophone studies with honors at the Conservatory of Granada (Spain), Pedro Saxo (Pedro Rafael Garcia Moreno) chose the path of personal research, delving into the study of the saxophone and new forms of interpretation, imitation of sounds, world music, as well as performance practice with professional actors in Madrid. As a result, Pedrosaxo is a unique artist of extreme sensitivity to the world around him, able to describe the atmosphere of faraway places through the saxophone and his body, his music combines originality and traditional saxophone.

Check out a preview of PerdoSaxo on You Tube here and here!

Pedro Saxo is a Vandoren endorsing artist and we thank Vandoren for their support of this event! There will be several giveaways from Vandoren so don’t miss out. Derick Brown is endorsed by Legere Reeds, JodyJazz Mouthpieces, and P. Mauriat Saxophones. As always our events are FREE and open to the public. We hope to see you there!

Also mark your calendar:
​Tues June 14 – 6:30-8:30PM – DOUG LAWRENCE with the Saxquest Jazz Orchestra (at Tavern of Fine Arts)
Wed June 15 – 5-7PM – DOUG LAWRENCE
Sat July 9 – 2PM-4PM – JEFF COLLINS & JESSICA KNOPF duet
Sat July 16 – 2PM-4PM – ED CALLE

Saxquest address: 2114 Cherokee St., St. Louis, MO 63118
Tavern of Fine Arts address: 313 Belt Ave, St. Louis, MO 63112