Koh-I-Noor Saxophone Quartet

The Koh-I-Noor Saxophone Quartet was founded in 1985 by four students of the Utrecht conservatory in the Netherlands. Since then, the quartet played all over Europe and South America and recorded three albums. In 2015 the soprano saxophonist moved to Argentina but recently the four musicians have decided to go on anyway! So in the winter of 2019 they continued their musical activity together!

Frido ter Beek - soprano
Michiel van Dijk - alto
Sander Beumer - tenor
Marc Scholten - baritone

In 1985 the members of the Koh-I-Noor Saxophone Quartet met for the first time on the occasion of a workshop for young composers at the Conservatory of Utrecht. The composition "Rage, rage, rage against the dying of the light" by Herman van Dam was performed and recorded. This composition was selected for the International Gaudeamus Music Week. The start for the Koh-I-Noor Saxophone Quartet has been made! Since then, the KSK has performed contemporary music by young unknown talents as well as renowned composers. Over the years, the quartet has built up a solid reputation both nationally and internationally as a modern ensemble. The KSK gave concerts in Italy, Belgium, Germany, France, England and Argentina.
 
A lot of composers dedicated new music to the quartet. From France Serge Lancen, from Argentina Silvano Picchi, Sergio Parotti, Gabriel Adamo, Sergio Smilovich, Irma Urteaga and Celina Kohan de Scher, from the Netherlands Chiel Meijering, Gijs van Dijk, Carlos Michans, Herman van Dam, Lowell Dijkstra, Ted Ponjee, Paul Bruinen, Feike van der Zee and Kristoffer Zegers, from England Keith Beal and from Germany Markus Stollenwerk, Max Marcoll and Karl Heinz Blomann.
 
In 1993 the KSK traveled to Argentina for the first time. A series of fruitful concert tours would follow, in which, in addition to giving concerts and workshops, intensive contact was established with various Argentinean composers and musicians. During their second stay in Buenos Aires in 1995, the quartet premiered the composition "Alternances" for string orchestra and saxophone quartet by Carlos Michans with the "Orquesta de Camara Mayo" by the Chilean conductor David del Pino. In 1997 the CD "Lucubraciones" (KIN mvc 970407) was released and presented in september 1998 in Buenos Aires. It contains six contemporary works by Argentinean composers.
 
A CD with Dutch compositions was recorded in 2001 in collaboration with Muziekgroep Nederland and Radio Netherlands. The CD "Saxophone Quartets from the Netherlands" contains compositions by Hans Kox, Ton de Leeuw, Joep Straesser, Chiel Meijering and Carlos Michans and was released on the NM-classics label.
 
In 2004 the CD "Horrel" was released on which music by the Dutch composers Daan Manneke, Frank Crijns, Fons Mommers, Tom America, Feike van der Zee and Kristoffer Zegers can be heard. As a bonus track, the work "Electroshocks" for saxophone octet and electronica by Kristoffer Zegers was added to the CD (the premiere took place earlier during the November Music Festival 2003, in collaboration with the Belgian quartet Sax-Appeal).
 
In the following season, the KSK played a series of new compositions by a group of German composers connected to the "Gesellschaft für Neue Musik Ruhr". Later, the KSK has given a lot of space to a number of cross-over projects with saxophone quartet "SaxoPanico" and Rijndert van Woudenberg and with saxophonist and composer Dick de Graaf. They appeared on a number of stages to perform the "Nieuw Rotterdam´s Peil Revisited".

After a serious break the quartet has started again in 2019 and also continues in 2020, extending their repertoire and doing some concerts.