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

92 GOURWITZ: No, I agree with you completely. LULLOFF: And this starts to kind of fuel the thought train for me, and I have to kind of get into the story this way. And so the point is strong interest really came to mind. And I said to Kevin Sedatole that morning in his office. I said, ‘I just really think Steven Bryant. Let me go think about this.’ Went upstairs to my office. I came in a little while later, maybe it was the next day, ‘Steven Bryant.’ I said, ‘Yes, it’s Steven Bryant.’ And he said, ‘I think I have a possibility here, let’s think about this.’ GOURWITZ: Steven’s wife Verena is director of bands at Duke. JENKINS: Right GOURWITZ: Verena is a Michigan State graduate from Kevin. JENKINS: Yeah GOURWITZ: So Steven was always coming up to Michigan State, and got to know Joe. LULLOFF: And yeah, I’d met Steven, I think it was at his Concerto for Band…Wind Ensemble. JENKINS: Yeah LULLOFF: And I think that’s when I put two and two together on. Yeah…yeah…that’s the one. That’s the one. That’s the way he treats saxophones. That’s the way I hear the piece. My saxophone students were all over it. JENKINS: Oh yeah, amazing piece LULLOFF: I can’t remember who was in the section at the time. Jordan was a young man. Maybe it was Jordan’s freshman year, and Jordan was in the band. And he auditioned for the band blindly. Which shows no funny business or anything. And that’s what Kevin does. Kevin’s a man of integrity. And I just said, the next day I saw him, I said, ‘Steven Bryant!’ And he said, ‘I heard you!’ I said, ‘I just wanted to make sure you heard me.’ JENKINS: (Laughs) LULLOFF: You know, I started getting excited about the possibility. Well, then I started thinking, ‘OK, so what do I need to do?’ So I started looking up grants and Kevin said, ‘Let’s don’t cross that bridge now, just quite yet. Let’s just see how things go.’ And then he brought me in his office a little while longer and he said. ‘I think I have a possibility for a commission for the Steven Bryant. (To GOURWITZ) He’d mentioned your name. GOURWITZ: Before he mentioned it to me….I’m serious.