Beyond the Instrument
Beyond the Instrument: A Repertoire Project is an ongoing, artist-driven initiative by Wheeler, grounded in a personal commitment to expanding the saxophone’s repertoire and developing work that is meaningful in performance and accessible to diverse audiences. The project brings together newly commissioned works, underperformed repertoire, and arrangements and transcriptions to build a sustained body of repertoire for the instrument.
The project centers collaboration with composers across a range of backgrounds and musical approaches, with an emphasis on developing repertoire that contributes to contemporary saxophone practice. These works engage the full expressive and technical range of the instrument, creating points of entry for performers and listeners without reducing artistic depth or rigor.
At its core, Beyond the Instrument focuses on connection: between performer and composer, between existing repertoire and new work, and between audiences inside and outside of the saxophone community. It aims to create music that is personally grounded while expanding who feels represented in and connected to the repertoire.
Beyond the Instrument: Repertoire List
-
As the Willow Tree Grows, Jordan VanHemert
Karpathia, alto saxophone and wind ensemble, Tolga Zafer Özdemir
Sonata for Alto Saxophone and Piano, Lawson Lunde
My Childhood is My Home, solo alto saxophone, Kakia Gkoudina
Μπαλάντα (Ballad)" — Κώστας Τσούγκρας (Costas Tsougras), alto saxophone and piano
-
Selected commissioned works that fit the scope of the Beyond the Instrument project.
Bird Songs, Jordan VanHemert
Conjure, solo saxophone, Anthony R. Green
Expressions, alto saxophone and fixed electronics, Emerson Sudbury
your silences will not protect you, two alto saxophones, Seare Farhat
3 Poems of Kostas Kavafe, Άργύρης Κουνάδης (Argires Kounades), alto saxophone and piano
Asymptotes, Stella Dalampira, solo soprano saxophone