By Mike Telin
On Tuesday, March 3 at 7:30 pm at Akron’s E.J. Thomas Hall, Tuesday Musical continues its season with the Marsalis-McAllister-Ames Trio — Branford Marsalis and Timothy McAllister, saxophones, and Liz Ames, piano. Tickets are available online.
I caught up with Branford Marsalis by phone in Durham, North Carolina. I began by asking him to share his recollection of how the trio met.
Branford Marsalis: I met Liz through her former husband who is a saxophonist. I went to a saxophone conference after I’d met her, and was just amazed at the volume of music that she could learn on the fly. If you’ve ever been to something like the North American Saxophone Alliance, you know that the pianists have to play something like twenty-five pieces in three days. And Liz had this massive volume of music that she walked around with, going from rehearsal room to rehearsal room, rehearsing with saxophonists from all over the country. I was just amazed by that. It left an impression on my mind. Wow, she’s amazing.
CityMusic Cleveland presented the first concert in its current five-program set on Wednesday, October 15 to a good-sized crowd at Lakewood Presbyterian Church. Under the direction of music director Avner Dorman, the chamber orchestra played symphonies by Mozart and Haydn and gave the Cleveland premiere of Dorman’s Saxophone Concerto with Timothy McAllister as soloist. 
“The saxophone is a very versatile instrument. It’s powerful, it’s expressive, and very close to the human voice. Still, it’s not an instrument we’re used to hearing in concert halls,” composer and CityMusic artistic director Avner Dorman said during a telephone conversation. On Wednesday, October 15 at 7:30 in Lakewood Congregational Church, Dorman will conduct the Cleveland premiere of his Saxophone Concerto featuring Timothy McAllister as soloist. The concert, the first of five performances in different venues around Cleveland through October 19, will also include works by Mozart, Haydn and Dvořák. See our 
CityMusic Cleveland will present four programs during 2014-2015 in multiple venues around metropolitan Cleveland, three of them conducted by the chamber orchestra’s artistic director and composer Avner Dorman, one by CWRU’s Peter Bennett.