Biography
Soprano chair of the renowned PRISM Quartet and internationally-acclaimed soloist, Timothy McAllister has emerged as one of today’s premier concert saxophone performers and teachers. Since his solo debut at age sixteen with the Houston Civic Symphony, his career has taken him throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, Mexico, France, Switzerland, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria, garnering prizes at many prestigious national and international competitions, with solo performances in such venues as Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium, Zankel Hall and Weill Recital Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, the Krannert Center, Los Angeles’ Walt Disney Concert Hall, Sumida Triphony Hall in Tokyo, Dallas’ Meyerson Center, and Rotterdam’s Zaal de Unie.
McAllister’s critically acclaimed, internationally released recordings can be heard on the Stradivarius, Summit, OMM, Einstein, NAXOS, AUR, New Dynamic, Albany, Equilibrium, New Focus, Centaur, G.I.A. Publications, and Innova labels. Mark Stryker of the Detroit Free Press has recognized his albums as among the top classical saxophone recordings, and his recording of Pulitzer-Prize winning composer William Bolcom’s Concert Suite for Alto Saxophone and Band multiple Grammy Award nominations in three major categories.
McAllister has premiered over 100 new works by today’s most eminent and emerging composers ranging from solo compositions by Gunther Schuller, Caleb Burhans, Jennifer Higdon, Benjamin Broening, Kati Agocs, Mischa Zupko, Andrew Mead, Gregory Wanamaker, Roshanne Etezady, Kristin Kuster to saxophone quartets and chamber works by William Bolcom, Martin Bresnick, Steven Mackey, Lee Hyla, Libby Larsen, Lei Liang, John Harbison, David Rakowski, John Anthony Lennon, Zhou Long, Chen Yi, Brian Fennelly, Evan Chambers, Ken Ueno, Perry Goldstein, Stephen Rush, Zack Browning among many others. In October 2009, he appeared as saxophonist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Maestro Gustavo Dudamel’s Inaugural Gala concert performing the world premiere of John Adams’ major new work, City Noir (released on DVD by Deutsche Grammophon), and performed the work with the orchestra throughout its May 2010 U.S. Tour, with appearances in San Francisco, Chicago, Phoenix, Philadelphia, and New York City’s Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center.
“No doubt this disc will be much studied and admired by saxophonists and certainly deserves hearing among a still wider audience...remarkably good and thought provoking” Robert McColley Fanfare Magazine - Review of Visions
He has appeared with chamber groups such as QUORUM, Trio Del Sol, the Minimum Security Composers Collective Ensemble, Duo 45th Parallel (with Lucia Unrau), Brave New Works, and the Ariel Web (with dancer/choreographer Peter Sparling). He has performed in concert with celebrated pianists Christopher Taylor, Andrew Zolinsky, Andrew Campbell, Winston Choi, Tannis Gibson, Kevin Class, Midori Koga, Stephen Buck, and Kathryn Goodson, with whom he collaborates regularly. His has performed as soloist with or as a member of the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Houston Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Ballet Arizona, New World Symphony, Ann Arbor Symphony, the Hot Springs Festival Orchestra, Texas Festival Orchestra at Round Top, Tucson Symphony, Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Albany Symphony/Dogs of Desire Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of Northern New York, and the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble. He was the featured soloist for the University of Michigan Symphony Band Centennial Anniversary Tour in 1997 and soprano chair of the Ninth Circle Saxophone Quartet, which won the 2001 Grand Prize at the Fischoff International Chamber Music Competition.
With the PRISM Quartet, he has appeared with the Pacific Symphony, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Opera Colorado/Colorado Symphony, Columbus Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, Ocean City Pops (NJ), Augusta Symphony, and the Nashville Symphony, in addition to numerous chamber music engagements nationwide. He has been a featured soloist at the national/international conferences of SEAMUS, the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial meetings, the Potsdam Single Reed Summit, the New England Saxophone Symposium, and the U.S Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium. Additionally, he appeared as soloist with the Royal Belgian Air Force Band at the XIII World Saxophone Congress.
As a jazz and commercial musician, he has performed with notable big bands, and in many regional music theater and studio orchestra touring productions, having appeared with numerous entertainers including Broadway icon Patti LuPone. He has also performed behind such jazz greats as saxophonists Jimmy Heath, Rick Margitza, Dave Liebman and trumpeteer Ed Sarath. Since joining PRISM, he has premiered several jazz compositions by composer/performers Greg Osby, Tim Ries, Matt Levy, Tim Berne, and has collaborated with guitarist/composer Ben Monder and drummer Anthony Pinciotti.
Beginning in September 2012, McAllister will be the new Associate Professor of Saxophone and Co-Director of the New Music Institute at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. His previous faculty positions include Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute School of Music, The University of Arizona School of Music, and SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music. He spends his summers as a distinguished Valade Fellow/Instructor of Saxophone for the Interlochen Center for the Arts. He has given clinics and recitals at many of the nation’s elite universities and conservatories, and has been a visiting instructor and sabbatical replacement for Donald Sinta at The University of Michigan. In 2003, he was invited by French virtuoso Claude Delangle to serve as a Guest Professor at the Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique in Paris, and also served as visiting instructor for Jean-Pierre Baraglioli’s class at the Conservatoire de Montreuil (Paris).
He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts and other degrees in music education, conducting and performance from The University of Michigan where he studied saxophone with Donald Sinta and conducting with H. Robert Reynolds. He is the only saxophonist to ever receive the School of Music’s most distinguished performance award—the Albert A. Stanley Medal. Alongside composer Derek Bermel, acclaimed countertenor David Daniels, and New York Metropolitan Opera coach Howard Watkins, McAllister has been honored with the Paul C. Boylan Award from the Michigan School of Music Alumni Society for his significant contributions to the field of music.
Timothy McAllister is a Conn-Selmer artist, and plays Selmer (Paris) saxophones exclusively. He is also a RICO Gold Artist, assisting with research and design for the D’Addario Co, and endorses the RICO Reserve Classic saxophone reeds and Ishimori Ligatures.