West Virginia University music faculty member David Wright will present a saxophone recital at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 24, in the Bloch Learning and Performance Hall of the WVU Creative Arts Center.
The event is free and open to the public.
Wrights accompanist will be pianist Lya Cartwright. Wright will also be assisted by two other music faculty members, John Winker, trumpet, and Lynn Hileman, bassoon. The program will contain works for saxophone and piano by George Frideric Handel, Henk Badings, Erwin Dressel, Ernst-Lothar von Knorr, Carl Anton Wirth, Dinos Constantinides and Claude Bolling.
Wright has gained international recognition as a performer of both classical and jazz saxophone, giving concerts and master classes throughout the United States, Central America, South America, Europe and Asia.
As a commercial artist, David has performed with artists such as The Temptations, The Four Tops, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Mary Wilson (The Supremes), The O’Jays, Regis Philbin and the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra.
As a classical saxophonist, he has performed with some of the best regional orchestras in the United States and has given recitals and master classes around the world.
Some of these engagements include the China International Clarinet/Saxophone Festival (Changchun, China); National Conservatory (Lima, Peru); Victoriano Lopez School of Music (San Pedro Sula, Honduras); World Saxophone Congress XIII (Minneapolis); U.S. Navy Saxophone Symposium (Fairfax, Va.); Schonbrunn Palace (Vienna, Austria); The Cotton Club (Budapest, Hungary); Krakow School of Jazz and Contemporary Music (Krakow, Poland); and World Saxophone Congress XIV (Ljubljana, Slovenia).
As a soloist, teacher and member of the Traverser Saxophone Quartet, Wright has commissioned and performed many new works for solo saxophone, quartet, large ensembles and mixed ensembles, from renowned composers such as Walter S. Hartley, Spiros Mazis, David Williams, Dinos Constantinides, Constantine Lignos, Server Acim and Grammy Award winner Gordon Goodwin.
In addition, Wright is co-founder of the Traverser Saxophone Symposium and Appalachian Saxophone Orchestra.
Wright holds degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi and the State University of New York at Fredonia. See his Web site athttp://www.davidwrightsaxophone.com.
For more information, contact the College of Creative Arts at 304-293-4841 ext. 3108.