Saxophonist, Composer, Educator, Advocate, Steven Banks is an Assistant Professor of Saxophone at Ithaca College in NY. He is the first saxophonist to earn a place on the Young Concert Artists roster in its 59-year history, capturing First Prize at the 2019 Young Concert Artists International Auditions.

He has won numerous other awards, including Korean Concert Society Prize (for support of his Kennedy Center debut), Buffalo Chamber Music Society Prize, Saint Vincent College Concert Series Prize, and more.

He has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra in Carnegie hall, amongst many other famous concert halls throughout the world.

Banks is the baritone saxophonist of the award-winning Kenari Quartet, which has found a home performing on many of the premiere chamber music series in the United States.

The group has earned top prizes at 7 national and international chamber music competitions.

Banks is an advocate for diversity and inclusion in music education, performance, and newly commissioned works in the classical realm.

He gave a talk at the TEDxNorthwesternU 2017 conference with ideas about how to create change in institutionalized prejudices against women and people of color. Since the talk, Banks has written an article for WQXR and given guest lectures on the history of black classical composers.

Banks serves as a member of the first Committee on the Status of Women for the North American Saxophone Alliance, and is proud to have been selected as a member of the jury for the first Female Saxophonist Competition.

Banks is an endorsing artist for Conn-Selmer instruments, D'Addario Woodwinds, lefreQue Sound Solutions, and Key Leaves.

The link to his full biography, along with more Resources for this episode, is on our website.

We talked about:

• Tips and recommendations of pieces for Classical saxophonists
• What made him decide to go the classical route instead of jazz
• Steven talks about his equipment in detail, and the research he's done
• A key question to ask when thinking about your set up
• A new app for improving saxophone tone that he loves to recommend
• Silver and lacquer plating; differences in sound and projection
• How he uses the LefreQue sound bridge accessory

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