Single Reed Day

Saxophonist Jan Berry Baker is a native of Alberta, Canada. In demand as a soloist and chamber musician, she has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico, France, Germany, Scotland, England, Ukraine, Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic. She has been featured as a concerto soloist with orchestras in Canada, Ukraine, USA, and most recently with the Sinfonica de Oaxaca in Mexico. As an orchestral saxophonist, Baker regularly performs with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Grant Park Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, Atlanta Opera and Atlanta Ballet and has appeared with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Joffrey Ballet, Paris Opera Ballet, Chicago Chamber Players, and American Ballet Theater. She can be heard on American Orchestral Works with Grant Park Orchestra (Cedille), The Golden Ticket with the Atlanta Opera (Albany), The BF Duo Project recording Diamorpha (Centaur), Citizens of Nowhere featuring works for clarinet and saxophone (Albany), and is a featured performer on John Liberatore’s Line Drawings (Albany) and Robert Scott Thompson’s Folio, Vol.1, Vol. 2 and Solace (Aucourant).

Dr. Baker is currently Associate Professor of Saxophone and Woodwind Area Head at the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA.  She studied with Frederick Hemke, William H. Street and Barbara Lorenz and earned a Doctor of Music degree in saxophone performance from Northwestern University. She is a founding member of the Committee on the Status of Women in the North American Saxophone Alliance and is the leader of the CSW Women’s+ Mentoring Program.  Jan Berry Baker is a Selmer Paris and Vandoren performing artist.

Ford Fourqurean is an award-winning clarinetist, electronic musician, and composer based in New York City. He serves as artistic director and clarinetist of Unheard-of//Ensemble presenting unique multimedia concert experiences around the United States. Known as “a unique force” (The Clarinet Journal), he has toured across the United States with Unheard-of//Ensemble presenting guest artist performances and talks at Northwestern, Manhattan School of Music, Cornell, and Oberlin with a repertoire of over 100 works written for the ensemble. Dr. Fourqurean has performed across New York from National Sawdust, Carnegie Hall, and Roulette to smaller venues and DIY spaces like Unheard-of’s performance on a floating platform in the Gowanus Canal. As a freelancer, Ford has worked with Contemporaneous, Little Orchestra Society, Fresh Squeezed Opera, Curiosity Cabinet in a guest residency at Queens College, and the Uptown Philharmonic in prior years.

Dr. Fourqurean graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University. While at SBU, he was awarded a Doctoral Dissertation Completion Fellowship for his work exploring new ways of using electronics in clarinet performance and an IDEA Fellowship supporting new video interview projects highlighting creative research within the College of Arts and Sciences. He served as a Teaching Assistant and Assistant Director of the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players (CCP) and served as Interim Director of the CCP. He holds a Master of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program where he worked with David Krakauer and Alan R. Kay.

Liz Ames is a collaborative pianist who is passionate about performing and working with instrumentalists, vocalists, and composers. Her international appearances include performances in the UK, Spain, the 2012 World Saxophone Congress in St. Andrews, Scotland, the 2015 World Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg, the 2008 Contemporary Music Festival in Lima, Peru, and at the 2011 and 2016 International Double Reed Society Conferences. Liz has served as piano coordinator and staff pianist at the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conferences in Tempe, AZ, Urbana-Champagne, IL, and Lubbock,TX. While specializing in saxophone literature, Liz continues to pursue projects with a wide variety of instrumentalists and vocalists. She curated a series of concerts during the 2010-2011 season where she performed the entire collection of 114 Songs by Charles Ives with eight different singers in Phoenix, Arizona.

Liz completed her doctorate in collaborative piano at Arizona State University and is currently living in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She performs with musicians throughout the Midwest and with her duo partner, two-time Grammy winning saxophonist, Timothy McAllister.