The Basement Saxophone Quartet is a group formed by alumni. They visited the Center of the Arts to meet with current students, share their stories, give critiques and perform a concert that showcased their amazing talent.
The meaning behind the name Basement Saxophone Quartet is based on how the members of the group practice in the basement of one of the musician’s homes. The members of the band are Cameron Vinson on soprano saxophone, who graduated in 2020 from UW-Whitewater, 2019 grad Austin Kappel on alto saxophone, 2017 grad Callie Barbeau on tenor saxophone and 2022 grad Angela Jacoby on baritone saxophone. All of the alumni are in music education and are currently teaching in Wisconsin.
“Last year we wanted to play and perform so we met up with each other, rehearsed Saturdays and Sundays, and did numerous performances for schools and working with the community,” said Jacoby.
They formed the Basement Saxophone Quartet many years after they graduated.
“Cameron, Angela and I were in the original group and formed a quartet together for two years in the saxophone studio,” said Kappel.
The members of the quartet added how in the saxophone studio, the professor Matt Sintchak assigns students to quartets based on their grade level. There would be a freshman quartet, sophomore and many more. So it was uncommon for students to build their quartet, but that’s what the original members did.
“We were all in different quartets since we are in different classes and years. We created this quartet in the later year,” Vinson said.
During their discussion with the current Whitewater students the quartet shared plenty of advice. They talked about applying to jobs, interviewing and being sure to apply to plenty of jobs. They also shared that students should enjoy the college experience and get to as many concerts as they can. In addition to music and work help, they also advised students to learn the good habit of budgeting now.
The concert that night consisted of pieces such as “Mountain Roads” by David Maslanka, “Ex Machina” by Marc Mellits, “Concerto Italien BWV 971” by J.S. Bach, “Far Away” by Takatsugu Muramatsu, and lastly “Ciudades” by Guillermo Lago. Many of the pieces performed have multiple movements, but the quartet chose specific ones to perform. “Mountain Roads” is a piece based on the composer having a dream that he was part of a work crew who were putting together new roads in the mountain country. The weather is set in the spring being sunny and comfortable even though there is snow still on the ground.
“Ex Machine” was originally for seven saxophone quartets, each movement dedicated to a different quartet and evokes a certain emotion. The title comes from the phrase “god of the machine” that came from a Greek drama in which the actor portrays a particular deity that was brought into the set using a particular kind of machine.
“Concerto Italien BWV 971” is originally composed for a harpsichord and illustrates Bach’s studies and appreciation towards his contemporaries such as Vivaldi.
“Far Away” is about a winter light snow and was originally sung in Japanese for a male voice and piano duo.
“Ciudades” is unique to the other pieces since the composer is still adding new movements to the piece. The piece is a series of musical sketches of cities that have a special meaning to the composer and the order of the sketches is up to the performer to decide.
The Basement Saxophone Quartet’s concert showed each player’s strong suit and showed how well the quartet blended as well as communicated throughout the whole performance.
Check out the Center of the Arts event page to see more groups perform that are either special guests, faculty or even students.
