A Conductor’s and Performer’s Guide to Steven Bryant’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone - Chester Jenkins

88 GOURWITZ: I’m supportive of music at Michigan State now too. Because friendship supersedes everything, right? JENKINS: Yeah, absolutely. LULLOFF: Right. GOURWITZ: And everybody knows that I’m here and I’m here too. LULLOFF: And may I interject? You make no distinctions, you just are friends. And that’s what it’s all about. It’s fantastic. GOURWITZ: It’s all about music. It’s all about kids. JENKINS: Yeah GOURWITZ: So Kevin said, ‘I want you to come up for the first football game, and then we’re going to have dinner at the house afterwards. So please come back for dinner.’ So I came up to the game. Last time I was at Michigan State for a football game I was playing in the Michigan Marching Band in the 60’s. JENKINS: (Laughs) GOURWITZ: So at any rate. I was sitting on a couch, and there was a man sitting next to me. And looks over at me and says, ‘What do you here at Michigan State?’ And looked at you and said, “I don’t work here at State, I’m a lawyer in Bloomfield Hills.’ LULLOFF: I had no idea GOURWITZ: I’m just Kevin’s friend. And he invited me to come tonight. I said, ‘What do you do here at Michigan State?’ And you looked at me and said, ‘I’m the professor of saxophone.’ Greatest day ever. JENKINS: (Laughs) LULLOFF: And it clicked GOURWITZ: And my whole life has changed. LULLOFF: Yeah GOURWITZ: The young student sitting next to Joe, was Jeff Loeffert. Now the professor of saxophone at Oklahoma State. Another OSU. Can you believe that I have friends at…well, anyway….at universities that say, ‘OSU?’ JENKINS&LULLOFF: (Laughs) GOURWITZ: We’re very good friends. And so, we become, like there’s nobody I’m closer to than Joe and Janet. And I love the saxophone, I’ve always loved the saxophone.