Event Series:
Guest Artist Recital
Paul Nolen, soprano and alto saxophones
September 18 @ 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Paul Nolen, soprano and alto saxophones
Geoffrey Duce, piano
Paul Nolen currently serves as Professor of Saxophone at Illinois State University where he has taught for the past 16 years. Paul has appeared as soloist, chamber musician, and jazz artist throughout the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United Kingdom.
Dr. Nolen appeared as concerto soloist at the 2012 World Saxophone Congress in Scotland with the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Ensemble, where he premiered Dr. Roy Magnuson’s Concerto for Saxophone and Wind Ensemble. He has soloed with the San Francisco Wind Ensemble at the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, and the University of New Mexico Wind Ensemble at the Robb Symposium. In 2018, he gave a consortium premiere of William Bolcom’s Concerto for Soprano Saxophone with the ISU Wind Symphony. Dr. Nolen has recorded two CD’s of Davis Maslanka’s music on Albany Records with ISU Wind Bands. They include a 2012 recording of David Maslanka’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble and a 2018 release, entitled Saxophone Concertos: Maslanka/Magnuson, with the premiere recording of David Maslanka’s Concerto for Saxophone Quartet and Wind Ensemble.
Dr. Nolen is also well known for his work with the award winning Iridium Quartet, with whom he has traveled and performed across North American for ten years, and recorded two CD’s of American music for saxophone quartet: Into Xylonia, and Skylines, both available on the Blue Griffin Record Label. Paul is a staunch advocate of new music and has commissioned works by composers such as William Bolcom, Roy Magnuson, Joshua Keeling, David Kirkland Garner, Peter Gilbert, Peter Lieuwen, Roy Magnuson, Marcus Maroney, David Maslanka, Sonia Morales, Karola Obermüller, David Rakowski, Ben Stonaker, and Carl Schimmel.
Dr. Nolen performs regularly with the Iridium Quartet, Peoria Symphony Orchestra, and the Heartland Festival Orchestras. He has given numerous masterclasses and lectures throughout the United States, including classes at the Brevard Music Festival, and has twice led an International Saxophone Course at the Aberystwyth MusicFest in Wales, UK. He received his Doctorate of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from Michigan State University with Joseph Lulloff, and his undergraduate degree in saxophone performances from the UMKC Conservatory of Music with Tim Timmons.
Geoffrey Duce is Coordinator of the Piano Area at Illinois State University. His pianism was described by Fanfare as “revelatory and a joy to listen to,” possessing “ferocious intellect as well as technique.” He has performed in Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Wigmore Hall, Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall, Edinburgh’s Queens Hall, and many other venues across North America and Europe, as well as in Japan, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. In 2022, he gave a solo recital debut at Ravinia.
As a concerto soloist, his appearances have included the Sinfonie Orchester Berlin in Germany, the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, Olympia Symphony Orchestra, and New York Sinfonietta in the USA, and the Scottish Sinfonia, Edinburgh Philharmonic, and Dundee Symphony Orchestra in the UK. During the 2018-19 season, he was the first Artist in Residence with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, with which he performed concertos by Duke Ellington and Edward MacDowell, among others.
His solo CD of Fantasies and Rhapsodies by CPE Bach, Schubert, John McCabe, and Dohnanyi was released in 2023 on Albany Records. He has appeared at contemporary music festivals, including a solo recital as the opening concert of the Dialogues Experimental Music Festival in Edinburgh, and numerous performances of solo and chamber works at the RedNote New Music Festival in Illinois, for example by Steven Stucky, Eric Moe, Steven Hartke, and George Tsontakis.
A winner of the Making Music Award from Britain’s National Federation of Music Societies and the Prix de Piano at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France, Geoffrey Duce is also a passionate chamber musician and accompanist, his appearances including performing at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, recording for BBC Radio 3, and previous album releases with partners including double bassist Nicholas Bayley, the disk described by MusicWeb International as “expertly played … a truly satisfying chamber collaboration” and named their Recording of the Month, and with tenor Justin Vickers, Fanfare commenting “It is difficult to imagine a finer performance than this.”
Originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, he initially studied at the Royal Northern College of Music and Manchester University before receiving a DAAD scholarship to attend the Universität der Künste Berlin, and earned his doctorate at Manhattan School of Music. His teachers have included Sheila Desson, Renna Kellaway, Klaus Hellwig, Ferenc Rados, Solomon Mikowsky, Nina Svetlanova, and Phillip Kawin.
He has previously served on the faculty at Manhattan School of Music, the State University of New York (Westchester Community College), and Indiana University South Bend. He has given masterclasses for the Orquesta Filarmónica in Bogotá, Colombia, and at such institutions as the University of Hawaii, the City of Edinburgh Music School, St. Thomas University in New Brunswick, Canada, and Seattle’s Academy of Music Northwest, as well as at colleges in Tennessee, Michigan, Wisconsin, and throughout Illinois.
He served as a resident international visiting faculty member at the University of Taipei, has taught at Tunghai University in Taichung, Taiwan, was a faculty member of the inaugural Global Immersion Program at SouthWest University in Chongqing, China, and was a juror at the American Classical Pianist International Competition in Hangzhou and the Asia Youth Piano Festival, based in Shanghai. He has also taught at the Chicago Chamber Music Festival and the Fischoff Chamber Music Summer Intensive.
Free
