Shockingly Modern Saxophone Festival at Augustana College's Larson Hall -- February 21.
Saturday, February 21
Augustana College's Larson Hall, 639 38th Street, Rock Island IL
Boasting performances from Augustana College faculty members, students, and guest artists, the college's Shockingly Modern Saxophone Festival will, on February 21, treat music lovers to a day's worth of solo and chamber music in an event exploring the nearly unlimited sonic potential of the saxophone through new composition, improvisation, extended performance techniques, microtonality, electronic music, multimedia and other experimental elements.
Among this year's guest artists is saxophonist John Sampen, who is recognized as an outstanding artist in contemporary music literature. He has commissioned and premiered more than 80 works, including compositions by Albright, Bolcom, Cage, Subotnick, and Ussachevsky. In 1970, Sampen was a recitalist and certificate winner at the International Geneva Concours in Switzerland. A recipient of several NEA consortium and recording awards, Sampen has been involved with commissions, premieres and/or recordings of new music by Adler, Albright, Babbitt, Beerman, Martino, Mays, Shrude, Subotnick and, Wuorinen. He regularly performs contemporary and traditional saxophone repertoire in recital with pianist/composer Marilyn Shrude. Currently a Distinguished Research Artist Professor at Bowling Green State University, Dr. Sampen is former president of the North American Saxophone Alliance and clinician for the Conn-Selmer Company and Légère Reeds.
Also on the Shockingly Modern Saxophone Festival guest list is Mark Bunce, a composer, former recording engineer/electronics technician for the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music, and the director of Recording Services at BGSU. He holds degrees from BGSU and Olivet College. A veteran of the recording industry for more than 35 years, Bunce has engineered innumerable compact discs and recordings for such labels as Newport Classics, Centaur Records, Opus One, Sony Classics, Koch International, Albany, AMP Records, Orion, Neuma, Vox and Capstone. He has also engineered more than a dozen contemporary music series for public radio, and composed and engineered soundtracks for award-winning corporate videos and PBS signatures.
The schedule for the 2026 Shockingly Modern Saxophone Festival is: a 10:30 a.m. Augustana Saxophone Studio concert; an 11 a.m. Saxophone Masterclass with John Sampen; a 2:30 p.m. Faculty Recital with Augustana's Randall Hall, professor of music and founder and artistic director of the festival; a 3:30 p.m. Q&A with guest artists Sampen and Mark Bunce; and the climactic 7:30 p.m. concert event with Sampen and Bunce, the musicians performing the composition "In Two Worlds."
The Shockingly Modern Saxophone Festival takes place on February 21 in Augustana College's Larson Hall, located in the Bergendoff Hall of Fine Arts building. Admission to all of the day's events is free, and more information is available by calling (309)794-7306 and visiting Augustana.edu.
