Navy Band Sax Symposium!

We are honored to announce that our project was selected to present a recital at the Navy Band's International Saxophone Symposium!  This yearly event is hosted at the George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.  We will be performing the three commission pieces off our CD: Adam Knauss' Portrait, Kathleen Bader's Two Songs for the Sounds Outside, and George Lam's The Person In The Room Wishes To Be Left Alone.

All events at the symposium are free, so if you are in the area come see us Friday, January 20 at 6:30-7pm in the Chorus Room!

CD Released!

Well, September flew by with lots of rehearsals, two CD release concerts, designing a store on Zach's website, and mailing out CDs to our donors.  We had a wonderful time premiering the music from our new CD in Lexington, MA and NYC, but really we can't wait to get to more cities!  On our list is Boston, Providence, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and DC.  Of course as soon as concerts are booked, we'll post the info.

In the mean time, head over to http://www.zachherchen.com/store/ and check out our CD Emerging Voices!

One final thing, we had a pre-concert party in NYC that included desert on the subway ride to our concert.  This picture is so awesome, we have to share:

Photos were taken by Anthony Trujillo. Check out his portfolio and tumblr!

Lexington on Sept 18

Our Lexington, MA concert is officially rescheduled for Sunday, Sept 18 @ 2pm at Follen Church!  We hope to see you (and no hurricanes) there!

Lexington Concert Cancelled

The concert is cancelled!

If you were planning on braving the weather to see us play new music, then you are awesome. Please stay home and be safe! We'll reschedule for September.

For those of you who donated on Kickstarter, CDs and downloads will be sent out on Monday. For everyone else, CDs will go on sale through www.zachherchen.com starting late next week.

Keeping an eye on hurricane Irene

Hurricane Irene is expected to reach Massachusetts just in time for our concert (thanks mother nature). Sunday morning we will check the latest weather report. If we need to cancel or move the concert we will post here, on our Facebook event page, and send emails.

It's All Happening!

And we're off!  

The CD release is upon us. Join us on Sunday, August 28th in Lexington, MA.


The concert kicks off at 2pm at Follen Church located at 755 Massachusetts Avenue in Lexington, Massachusetts.  Tickets are $10. 

Elisabeth and Zach will perform works from their  new CD, all of which were commissioned by and written for the performers. As you all know by now, "Emerging Voices" features three young American composers: Kathleen Bader, Adam Knauss and George Lam.  There will be a reception in the Community Center afterward, and CDs will be available for purchase!

Hope to see you there!

New Music in Hand

This weekend we received our third score and have all the music for our CD in hand! Here's the breakdown:

Adam Knauss - Portrait
-soprano and bari sax

Kathleen Bader - Two Songs for the Sounds Outside
-soprano and alto sax
-two movements: "The Stars Are Laughing" and "Hush"

George Lam, libretto by Benjamin Rogers - The Person In The Room Wishes To Be Left Alone
-soprano, alto sax, and tape
-prologue, 5 chapters, and epilogue

I'll post detailed info on each piece as we record them. Many thanks to our composers for their hard work!

One Down

Over the last two weeks we have been recording and editing Lori Laitman's I Never Saw Another Butterfly! We are nearly finished with her piece and will be tackling Adam Knauss' new composition throughout May. It feels great to start recording! Now we just gotta learn the three new pieces...

Congratulations to Amy Beth Kirsten!

This month Amy Beth Kirsten was named a 2011 Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of a Levy Supplemental Stipend for music composition. You can read the press release here. Way to go Amy!

Amy is one of four composers writing music for our Emerging Voices Project. We are looking forward to working with her in the Fall.

Coaching with Lori Laitman

Yesterday Elisabeth and I drove down to Potomac, MD to work with Lori Laitman on her piece I Never Saw Another Butterfly. Lori had great advice for us on the character of each movement and helped us with interpretive choices that we've debate over the last couple years. We're feeling ready to go and will start recording her piece next week!

I also wanted to share Lori's awesome dog Kirby, who is a natural singer:

Recording Test!

Elisabeth Halliday and I tested out a recording space earlier this week! We are getting ready to start recording the album for our Emerging Voices Project. Up next on our schedule is to rehearse with Lori Laitman and record her piece I Never Saw Another Butterfly for soprano and alto sax in April. Then in May we will rehearse and record Adam Knauss’ new piece Portraits for soprano and bari sax.

Kickstarter Successfully Funded

Our Kickstarter fundraiser has finished at $4,220! A great big "Thank You!" goes out to our 57 backers who pledged 140% of our goal. Because of them we were able to commission a fourth composer and will expand our CD release tour.

Here's what comes next:
-we will create 10 one-of-a-kind recordings for backers (songs of their choice)
-the commissioned composers will write music
-1 backer gets a voice lesson with Elisabeth
-this summer we will record the album (and mail it to backers)
-6 backers will receive a limited run behind-the-scenes DVD
-then we'll tour and celebrate with you!

We will post updates at each step so check back regularly!

New York Concert a Success!

We had a great time on Sunday - Neke Carson at the Gershwin Hotel was so welcoming. The Lobby really is one of my favorite New York venues.

This was our last performance before we start learning and recording our commissioned peices. Here we go!!

Sunday Concert in New York City

This Sunday is the second performance of our kick-off promotional tour, this time in New York City!

Sunday January 30th, 3pm
Gershwin Hotel
7 East 27th St.
New York, NY 10016
$10 at the door

Zach and I performed at the Gershwin Hotel a little over a year ago, with Rhymes With Opera, and we had a great time - the space is eclectic and intimate, and we're thrilled to be performing there again.

Welcome to Amy Beth Kirsten

We have met our second goal of $3,500! Elisabeth and I are excited to add Amy Beth Kirsten to our list of commissioned composers. Info about her will be posted in the composers section soon.

There is still a few days left to reach our final goal of $4,000. This would allow us to expand our CD release tour and reach a city close to you! Head over to our Kickstarter page to pledge your support.

106% funded!

What a busy couple of weeks! We've been blown by everyone's support and the project is now 106% funded. What's this mean for us? We will be able to commission three new pieces for voice and sax from composers Kathleen Bader, Adam Knauss, and George Lam and create a CD with their new pieces alongside Lori Laitman’s I Never Saw Another Butterfly!

This doesn’t mean that we are going to sit back a relax though. We would love to add one more composer (TBA) to the project and expand our planned CD release tour (Boston and NYC) to include cities like Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC, or a city of your choice! Here are our new funding goals:

$3,500 – We will add one more composer

$4,000 – We will expand our CD release tour

Head over to our Kickstarter page to join in supporting the project.