Event details

• Sunday, March 10, 2013, 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m.
• Swarthout Recital Hall, Murphy Hall, 1530 Naismith Drive, Lawrence
• Cost: Free
• Age limit: All ages

KU School of Music professor Vince Gnojek will present his Silver Anniversary Saxophone Recital on Sunday, March 10, 2013 at 2:30 p.m. in celebration of 25 years of teaching at the University of Kansas. The performance will be held in Swarthout Recital Hall, Murphy Hall. Featured soloists will be former KU saxophone students: Paul Haar from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nate Jorgensen from South Dakota State University, and Todd Wilkinson from Ottawa University. The second half of the program includes a saxophone ensemble arrangement of “Concertino da Camera” by Jacques Ibert featuring Gnojek, followed by a KU Saxophone Studio/KU Alumni Saxophone Ensemble playing selections from “Pictures at an Exhibition” by Mussorgsky. Martin Bergee, associate dean of the School of Music, and Sharon Toulouse, assistant director of bands, will conduct the saxophone ensembles. In honor of this 25th anniversary celebration, and as part of KU’s Far Above: The Campaign for Kansas, Gnojek is initiating a saxophone scholarship drive with a generous personal contribution. Anyone wishing to donate to the scholarship fund may do so at the recital or through KU Endowment at a later time. To learn more about the KU Saxophone Scholarship or to make a donation, visit www.kuendowment.org/vincegnojek or contact Michael Arp at 785-832-7410 or marp@kuendowment.org. This event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the KU School of Music at 785-864-3436. About Vince Gnojek As a saxophone soloist, Vince Gnojek has appeared in recitals and with orchestras, wind ensembles and jazz ensembles in Singapore, Costa Rica, Mexico, Malaysia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Switzerland, Germany, Macau, Thailand, China and throughout the United States. He has also performed in forty-two states and in Mexico, Canada, Portugal and Thailand as the alto saxophonist with the highly acclaimed Harvey Pittel Saxophone Quartet. Gnojek has been a member of the Denver Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, the Denver Chamber Orchestra, the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra and the Topeka Symphony Orchestra. In addition to his first solo recording, Crossings, he is the featured soloist on John Mackey’s Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Wind Ensemble with the University of Kansas Wind Ensemble on its compact disc Wild Nights! on the NAXOS label. He has also recorded with the Harvey Pittel Saxophone Quartet, as a member of Steve Reich's Contemporary Music Ensemble, as the alto saxophonist with the Kansas Woodwinds, and with the Kansas City Boulevard Big Band. Gnojek is an active saxophone clinician at music festivals and conferences, academies and conservatories of music, universities, colleges and secondary schools throughout the world. A dedicated educator, he is the professor of saxophone at the University of Kansas. In 2007 he was the recipient of the 12th Annual Phoenix Award for outstanding artistic achievement in performing arts, presented by the Lawrence Arts Commission. The University of Kansas Saxophone Quartet I has been selected as the Outstanding Chamber Music Group in the United States and Canada by DownBeat magazine’s Annual Student Music Awards on five different occasions.