Western Michigan University

On October 28, PRISM Quartet performs a recital of new music at Western Michigan University’s Dalton Center Recital Hall located at 1300 Theatre Drive in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

PRISM’s program travels from the factory floor to a pine forest and from Hollywood to China. Four of the works were commissioned by PRISM, including Roshanne Etezady’s Inkling, a one-minute vignette written in 2004 for the ensemble’s twentieth anniversary. As its title suggests, it offers the merest hint of an idea, and its clouds of sound showcase PRISM’s flexibility and color. Don Byron’s new Quartet for Saxophones is a fearless homage to classic film scores of the ’50s and ’60s, from the title-sequence swagger of “Saul Bass” to a closing “Fandango.” Bright Sheng’s Old Tune Renewed takes its name from a Chinese tradition in which performers reinvent well-known compositions as new works. Sheng builds his piece on a folk song from Northwestern China, capturing the spirit of singing that rings through open valleys while imbuing it with his own voice. In selections from Chris Potter’s epic Improvisations, written for PRISM’s Heritage/Evolution series and recorded on Heritage/Evolution, Volume 2, jazz saxophonist Andrew Rathbun improvises over the quartet, stepping into the solo role first shaped by Potter and Ravi Coltrane on the recording. The program’s other two works have deep Michigan roots. Bill Ryan’s Tiny Machines, a set of miniatures inspired by the robotic assembly line at Ford’s truck plant in Dearborn, is heard in an arrangement commissioned by the Sinta Quartet. Kristin Kuster wrote Red Pine for the Sinta Quartet to mark Don Sinta’s retirement from the University of Michigan. WNYC’s John Schaefer calls it “a sonic depiction of the simple beauty of the pine forests of Ontario.”

PRISM Quartet
Timothy McAllister, soprano saxophone
Zachary Shemon, alto saxophone
Matthew Levy, tenor saxophone
Taimur Sullivan, baritone saxophone

with Andrew Rathbun, alto saxophone

PROGRAM

Inkling* (2004) by Roshanne Etezady

Tiny Machines (2017, arr. 2024) by Bill Ryan
Select movements to be announced

Red Pine (2014) by Kristin Kuster

Quartet for Saxophones* (2026) by Don Byron
Saul Bass
Palate Cleanser
Fandango

Old Tune Renewed* (2022) by Bright Sheng

Improvisations* (2015) by Chris Potter
Interludes 2, 3, and 4
Improvisation 5
Featuring Andrew Rathbun

*Commissioned by PRISM Quartet

Guest Artist: Andrew Rathbun

Toronto-born saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Andrew Rathbun has spent more than two decades as a recording artist, building a body of work rooted in modern jazz and deeply informed by classical composition. The New York Times has called him “an industrious saxophonist and imaginative composer-arranger.” His recordings as a leader feature such artists as Kenny Wheeler, Billy Hart, George Garzone, Phil Markowitz, Bill Stewart, and Luciana Souza. They include The Atwood Suites, a JUNO-nominated jazz orchestra project drawn from the poetry of Margaret Atwood; Jade, settings of verse by Cathy Song; Impressions of Debussy; and Northern Noir, a duo recording with pianist Ran Blake. His works span song cycles, suites, and chamber and orchestral pieces, and he has written big band commissions for the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra, the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, and the Metropole Orkest. Rathbun has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Banff Centre. After years as a fixture of the Brooklyn jazz scene, he is now Professor of Saxophone and Jazz Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, where he is also a member of the faculty ensemble Western Jazz Collective. He holds a master’s degree from New England Conservatory, where he studied with George Garzone, Jimmy Giuffre, and George Russell, and a doctorate in jazz arts from Manhattan School of Music.

Acknowledgement

This program is co-presented by the Irving S. Gilmore School of Music at Western Michigan University and New Sounds Music, with support from the Michigan Arts and Culture Council.