Michael Stephenson - soprano
Chris Hemingway - alto
Stephen Pollock - tenor
Drew Hays - baritone
For over 30 years, the New Century Saxophone Quartet has entertained audiences with a combination of skillful artistry and down-home fun. Founded in Winston-Salem, NC, the ensemble was the first of its kind to win the prestigious Concert Artist Guild competition in New York City in 1992. The quartet has toured throughout the United States and the World performing in major concert venues including Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Pick-Staiger Concert Hall, Atlanta’s Spivey Concert Hall, Boston’s Symphony Hall and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, New York’s Merkin Concert Hall and the Kosciuszko Foundation Townhouse, Washington, D.C’s Strathmore Hall, the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, the Alaska’s Juneau Jazz and Classics Festival, the Villla Schönberg in Zurich, Switzerland, the Conservatoire de Musique in Esch Luxembourg, the Macau International Music Festival and the Academy for the Performing Arts in Hong Kong, China. New Century was also the first saxophone quartet to perform at La Huaca del Complejo Atlapa in Panama City, Panama.
NCSQ has appeared on television and radio across the United States on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, the Voice of America, and North Carolina Public TV. New Century has been the resident ensemble of two radio stations in North Carolina, WUNC in Chapel Hill and WHQR in Wilmington. Outside of the U.S., Panamanian TV aired a documentary and live performance, and in the Netherlands, Dutch radio presented a live broadcast from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In January 1998 the ensemble participated in a special performance for the Chinese New Year that was broadcast live to over 100 million people on television throughout the world. NCSQ has also appeared in unique concert settings including two command performances for President Clinton in the White House to a concerto performance with the United States Navy Band.
Beyond the concert stage, New Century has premiered numerous new works at international conferences and symposiums including most recently at the 2012 International Saxophone Congress in St. Andrews, Scotland, the 2012 North American Saxophone Alliance bi-annual conference in Tempe, AZ, and the 2015 US Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium in Winchester, VA.
The New Century Saxophone Quartet has dedicated its career to growing and developing the repertoire of the saxophone quartet, and to that end has commissioned numerous composers including Peter Schickele, Michael Torke, Sherwood Shaffer, Arthur Frackenpohl, David Ott, Ben Johnston, Barbara Kolb, David Lang, Benjamin Boone, Ken Valitsky, Thomas Massella, tenor saxophonist and Saturday Night Live Band leader Lenny Pickett, and well-known composer and jazz saxophonist Bob Mintzer. NCSQ has received commissioning grants from the National Endowment of the Arts, The Aaron Copland Recording Fund, Chamber Music America and the North Carolina Arts Council.