Faculty Artist Recital:
Benjamin Sorrell, saxophone
Hailed as having, “a gorgeous sound” by conductor Benjamin Zander, saxophonist Dr. Benjamin Sorrell has performed as a soloist, chamber musician, and with orchestras throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Other honors including winning the New England Conservatory (NEC) Concerto Competition performing Ingolf Dahl’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Orchestra, winning the NEC Honors competition and a solo performance in Jordan Hall, Boston, MA with his saxophone quartet, and being invited to perform William Bolcom’s Concerto Grosso with the University of Southern California Wind Ensemble.
Benjamin is a sought after performer and interpreter of repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary and is a proponent of the music of our time. This has led to performances on the Monday Evening Concerts Series, at The Players Theatre and John Zorn’s The Stone in New York City, Helmut List Halle, Graz, Austria, the University of Colorado at Boulder’s Pendulum New Music Series, and a lecture-recital at the Daegu International Contemporary Music Festival in Daegu, South Korea. As an orchestral musician, Benjamin has had the opportunity to work under the batons of Hugh Wolff, Donald Palma, Carl St. Clair, Benjamin Zander, Yuga Cohler, Jung-Ho Pak, Gunther Schuller, Lucas Vis, and Beat Furrer.
Benjamin has participated in various music festivals including, International Music Institute Darmstadt (Germany), Habanera Academy (France), European Saxophone University (France), Impuls Ensemble Academy for Contemporary Music (Austria), Brevard Music Center (Brevard, NC), and the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice (Boston, MA). He is currently writing for publication a morphological and semiotic analysis of Berio Sequenza IX.
Committed to community outreach, Benjamin visits schools performing and working with students throughout Los Angeles. In the past he was part of a New England Conservatory Community Outreach saxophone quartet for two years, and continued that outreach as an Honors Ensemble performing, talking about music, and working with students in schools, at after-school programs, and for the elderly at retirement homes, and assisted living communities in underserved neighborhoods throughout Boston.
Benjamin received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music, and holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree, both with Honors, from New England Conservatory of Music where he studied with Kenneth Radnofsky. Dr. Sorrell was inducted into the Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society at both institutions. Additional studies with Claude Delangle, Marcus Weiss, Vincent David, Jean-Denis Michat, Arno Bornkamp, Jean-Michel Goury, Habanera Quartet, and Prism Quartet.
Dr. Sorrell is the saxophone instructor at California State University, Northridge. He also maintains a studio of private saxophone students throughout Los Angeles County, is the saxophone and clarinet instructor at HYPERIUMconservatory in Rolling Hills, Palos Verdes, and as a saxophone and clarinet Teaching Artist for Young Musicians Foundation. He has previously held teaching positions at the University of Southern California, and Sinai Akiba Academy.
Performance Date:
Sunday, October 22, 2017 at 7:30 p.m. -- Doors open at 7 p.m.
Venue:
Cypress Recital Hall
