The Megalopolis Saxophone Orchestra:

When the French scholar Jean Gottmann (1915-1994) was asked about his first trip along the Northeastern Seaboard of America in 1942, the most striking feature he discovered was "the density of great cities along this coast, from Boston to Washington…it resulted obviously from the coalescence, recently achieved, of a chain of metropolitan areas, each of which grew around a substantial urban nucleus. The super-metropolitan character of this vast area, the greatest such growth ever observed, called for a special name. We chose the word ‘Megalopolis’...”

Founded in 2016, the Megalopolis Saxophone Orchestra (MSO) brings together artists of “exceptional musicianship” (Boston Musical Intelligencer) to cultivate and disseminate a nuanced view of the saxophone family. It is the collective’s mission to educate audiences about the saxophone through new as well as neglected repertoire that demands a quality of playing inimitable by other instruments.

As the only professional ensemble of its kind, the Megalopolis Saxophone Orchestra challenges popular conceptions of the instrument. Since its founding, Megalopolis has commissioned composers Hayes Biggs, Alex Burtzos, Josiah Catalan, Niki Harlafti, Molly Herron, Nima Janmohammadi, Gleb Kanasevich, Nicola LeFanu, Jesse Limbacher, Lara Poe, and Jay Schwartz to write for the ensemble. In addition to their efforts to inspire new works, the ensemble has presented national and local premieres of works by Stephen Dankner, Werner Wolf Glaser, Walter Hartley, Lei Liang, Maurice Karkoff, Lucie Robert-Diessel, Mark Taggart, Carl Anton Wirth, and John Worley.

During their 2019-20 season, the Megalopolis Saxophone Orchestra presented concerts at venues including All Saints’ Church (Princeton, NJ) and the DiMenna Center for Classical Music (NY, NY). Concerts included the world premiere of a new work by Molly Herron, as well as a collaboration with mezzo-soprano Briana Hunter. Alongside world premieres, the ensemble presented prize-winning works from their second Call for Scores, highlighting emerging composers across the globe.

Supported by the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, the Boston Opportunity Fund, in-kind contributions, and generous donors, Megalopolis is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Make your tax-deductible donation today and forever become a part of our saxophone family!