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Lawrence S. Gwozdz (/ˈɡwɑːdz/; Polish: [ɡvuɕt͡ɕ]; born April 1, 1953) is an American classical saxophonist, composer, and former professor of saxophone at The University of Southern Mississippi. His successor is Dr. Dannel Espinoza.
Born to Polish-American parents in Niagara Falls, New York, Gwozdz was a pupil and longtime friend of saxophone pioneer Sigurd Raschèr.
Career
Performing
He has performed in Beijing, Chicago, Leipzig, London, Los Angeles, Manchester, Prague, St. Louis, Warsaw, Zagreb, Zürich, and other cities in the US and abroad. His festival appearances have included the Yehudi Menuhin Festival, the International Chamber Music Festival of Le Touquet, Spoleto Festival USA.
Gwozdz is active in promoting, performing, and recording contemporary music. Composers including Samuel Adler, Walter Hartley, Zdeněk Lukáš, Armand Russell, Robert Starer, Roger Vogel, and John Worley have dedicated new chamber works to him. Gwozdz has also premiered full saxophone concertos by American composers Stephen Dankner, Alan Theisen, and Randall Snyder. Having been born with spina bifida, Gwozdz is also an advocate for arts for people with disabilities.
His performance with I Solisti di Zagreb motivated the press to write, "Gwozdz uses his instrument with superiority and virtuosity" (Vjesnik).
Gwozdz's Carnegie Hall debut was described in Musical America as an "extraordinary performance of contemporary music" with "the kind of timbre Adolphe Sax most likely had in mind ... always with subtlety and taste" (The New York Concert Review). On television, Gwozdz appeared with organist Diane Bish on The Joy of Music, and has performed concerti and recitals on radio for the Dame Myra Hess series (Public Radio International), Czech Radio-Prague, Croatian Radio, Minnesota Public Radio, and other networks.
Teaching
As professor of saxophone at The University of Southern Mississippi, he established a dedicated studio. His students have performed by invitation in major cities, including performances at Washington's Kennedy Center) as soloists, quartets, and as the Sax-Chamber Orchestra. Gwozdz's students have included:
- Harry Kinross White
- Alan Theisen
- Jonathan Bergeron
- Chris Condon
- Thomas Giles
- Steffen Haß
- Adam Muller
- Brian Kauth
- Dave Wozniak
- Brian S. Ransom
- Curt Altarac
- Patrick McLaughlin
- Marcus Ballard
- Jeffrey Humphrey
- Ron Gann
- David Wright
His annotated translation of the book Das Saxophon by Jaap Kool from German into English was published by Egon Publishers Ltd (Herts, England) in 1987.
Sax-Chamber Orchestra
The Sax-Chamber Orchestra is an ensemble of eleven saxophonists founded by Gwozdz in the 1980s. Under Gwozdz's baton, they have been active in promoting the saxophone as a concert medium for over twenty years. The S-CO has premiered several large works composed specifically for them, and have showcased these compositions at venues such as the World Saxophone Congress. The ensemble, whose musicians are auditioned yearly, all play using mouthpieces constructed from Adolphe Sax's original patents. The Sax-Chamber Orchestra comprises typical members of the saxophone family (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone) as well as the less common sopranino and bass saxophones.
Available recordings
- Raschèr International
- An American Concerto: Tribute to Sigurd Raschèr (1999) (with the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic) Albany Records TROY 331
- Simply Gifts
- Hurricane (includes Stephen Dankner's Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra) (with The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra)
- Special Hand'ling (2001) (music by George Frideric Handel arranged for saxophone, cello and harpsichord) Romeo Records 7216
- Glazunov and Erland von Koch: Concerti (with the Plovdiv Philharmonic)
- America Remembers (conducting the Sax-Chamber Orchestra)
- Parabolically Bach (conducting the Sax-Chamber Orchestra) Romeo Records
References
- "Dannel Espinoza Named New Saxophone Professor at Southern Miss School of Music | the University of Southern Mississippi". May 27, 2020.
- "Lawrence Gwozdz - Profile Viewer - The University of Southern Mississippi". www.usm.edu.
External links
Lawrence Gwozdz's YouTube channel
Categories:- 1953 births
- American classical saxophonists
- American male saxophonists
- American people of Polish descent
- Living people
- People with spina bifida
- Classical musicians with disabilities
- Scholars and academics with disabilities
- 21st-century American saxophonists
- 21st-century American male musicians
- American musicians with disabilities