Lois Hicks-Wozniak - Principal Saxophone

Lois Hicks-Wozniak http://loishickswozniak.com/ is an active concert saxophonist in the New York Metropolitan area and the Hudson Valley region. Among her many awards is the Special Presentation Winners Recital Series, sponsored by Artists International Presentations. As her prize, she performed her New York Recital Debut at Weill Recital Hall in Carnegie Hall.

From 1996-2004 she served active duty in the U.S. Army as a saxophonist with the United States Military Academy Band at West Point and with the West Point Saxophone Quartet. She was a featured soloist at the World Saxophone Congress 2000 in Montreal, where she performed the Glazunov Concerto with the West Point Concert Band. She can be heard on the West Point Saxophone Quartet CD, Fault Lines, and her performances have been broadcast on New York public radio.

In November 2007, as a subscription series soloist with the Ridgewood (NJ) Concert Band, she presented the east coast premiere of the John Mackey, Concerto for Soprano Sax and Wind Ensemble. As artist-in-residence at Mississippi State University, she performed the Mississippi premiere of Dream Dancer for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble by Michael Colgrass. She has been a guest of the Ithaca College Saxophone Society where she presented a recital and clinic at Ithaca College.

She is currently principal saxophonist with the Ridgewood (NJ) Concert Band, and she has performed with the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Orchestra, the Newburgh Symphony, the Lawton Philharmonic, the Pone New Music Ensemble and the Dallas Wind Symphony, to include their recording, Fiesta! She maintains an active schedule as a performer and clinician, participating in festivals such as the Hudson Valley Bachfest, and appearing as guest soloist with high school, university and community ensembles to include Northern Valley Regional High School at Old Tappan, the Teaneck Community Band and the Westchester Symphonic Winds. As a freelance musician, she has shared the stage with diverse acts from Manhattan Transfer to Milton Berle. Additionally, as a vocal soloist she has sung Broadway, pop, country, jazz and light opera selections.

An advocate of new chamber music, she and her husband, Matt Wozniak, comprise the saxophone and bass trombone duo, "The Unexpected Duo". Championing new works for this unique ensemble, they commissioned and premiered Cater Pann's "Duo for Alto Saxophone and Bass Trombone" at the Eastern Trombone Workshop in March 2011 in Washington, D.C., and at subsequent performances at the NASA Region 8 Conference at West Point, NY, March 2011 and the Crane School of Music Saxophone Chamber Music Festival in April 2011. She is also a member of the guitar and saxophone duo, "The Benninger Duo" with Hudson Valley guitarist, Mike Benninger; performing original works and transcriptions for saxophone and guitar at venues such as the Storm King Arts Center.

Festival Overture - Dudley Buck

Festival Overture on the American National Air by Dudley Buck was first performed in Indianapolis in 1887 for the Music Teachers’ National Association annual meeting. It opens with a lively theme that gives way to the national anthem, and then develops by weaving the two melodies together polyphonically and modulating through various keys. Festival Overture was the rousing conclusion of the 1890 Inaugural Concert in Washington, D.C. – Program Notes by Brian Timmons

John Mackey

John Mackey, born October 1, 1973, in New Philadelphia, Ohio, holds a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with John Corigliano and Donald Erb, respectively. Mr. Mackey particularly enjoys writing music for dance and for symphonic winds, and he has focused on those mediums for the past few years.

John has received numerous commissions from the Parsons Dance Company, as well as commissions from the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra, New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, the Dallas Theater Center, the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, the New York Youth Symphony, Ailey 2, Concert Artists Guild, Peridance Ensemble, and Jeanne Ruddy Dance, among many others. Recent commissions include works for the American Bandmasters Association, the Dallas Wind Symphony, and a concerto for New York Philharmonic Principal Trombonist Joseph Alessi.

As a frequent collaborator, John has worked with a diverse range of artists, from Doug Varone to David Parsons, from Robert Battle to the US Olympic Synchronized Swim Team. (The team won a bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics performing to Mackey's score, "Damn.")

John has been recognized with numerous grants and awards from organizations including ASCAP (Concert Music Awards, 1999 through 2008; Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, 2002 and 2003), the American Music Center (Margaret Jory Fairbanks Copying Assistance Grant, 2000, 2002), and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust (Live Music for Dance commissioning grants, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2005), and an NEA grant in 2007. He was a CalArts/Alpert Award nominee in 2000.

In February 2003, the Brooklyn Philharmonic premiered John’s work “Redline Tango” at the BAM Opera House, with Kristjan Jarvi conducting. The Dallas Symphony, under Andrew Litton, performed the piece in both Dallas and Vail in 2004. Mr. Litton performed the work again in 2005, this time with the Minnesota Orchestra, and again in 2006 with the Bergen Philharmonic of Norway. Marin Alsop performed the work at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in the summer of 2005. John made a new version of the work for wind ensemble in 2004 -- Mackey's first work for wind band -- and that version has since received over 250 performances worldwide. The wind version won the 2004 Walter Beeler Memorial Composition Prize, and in 2005, the ABA/Ostwald Award from the American Bandmasters Association, making John the youngest composer to receive the honor. John again received the ABA/Ostwald Award - as well as the National Band Association's William D. Revelli Award - in 2009 for "Aurora Awakes."

John served as a Meet-The-Composer/American Symphony Orchestra League "Music Alive!" Composer In Residence with the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony in 2002-2003, and with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra in 2004-2005. He was Composer In Residence at the Vail Valley Music Festival in Vail, Colorado, in the summer of 2004, and Composer In Residence at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in August 2005. He has held college residencies at Florida State, University of Georgia, Georgia State University, James Madison University, Kansas State University, University of Kansas, University of Florida, University of Alabama, University of Arizona, University of Michigan, Ohio State, Michigan State University, Texas Tech, Ball State, University of Oklahoma, Arizona State, Oklahoma State University, University of Washington, University of Southern California, University of Texas, and many others. Mr. Mackey served as Music Director of the Parsons Dance Company from 1999-2003, and he taught at Cal State Long Beach in 2008-2009.

To entertain himself while procrastinating on commissions, John is a photography enthusiast.

For more information on John Mackey, visit his web site.