Project Fusion members are, from left, Dannel Espinoza, Matt Evans, Matt Amedio, and Michael Sawzin
Project Fusion, an award-winning saxophone quartet composed of Eastman School of Music doctoral students Dannel Espinoza and Matt Evans, master’s degree student Michael Sawzin, and Matt Amedio BM ‘13, claimed the Grand Prize at the 2013 Plowman Chamber Music competition.
The competition, held earlier this month at the Missouri Theatre in Columbia, is a highly respected national and international event, with competitors coming from major music schools. Project Fusion’s performance of Eugéne Bozza’s Nuages, David Maslanka’s Recitation Book, Alexander Glazunov’s Saxophone Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 109, and Fuminori Tanada’s Mysterious Morning II, was described as “stunning” and earned the quartet the $5,000 Dr. David & Nancy Bedan Grand Prize.
In addition to winning the Plowman, Project Fusion was awarded first place in the 2013 Music Teachers National Association Chamber Music Wind Competition. In 2012, the quartet shared the $4,000 Coleman-Saunderson Prize of the Coleman Chamber Music Competition, and won the second prizes at the North American Saxophone Alliance Quartet Competition and at the J.C. Arriaga Chamber Music Competition.
Project Fusion will also be awarded the Eastman School of Music’s John Celentano Award for Excellence in Chamber Music for the 2012-2013 academic year.
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