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The Sovereign Saxophone Octet was formed in late 2002, after two of the founder members had such a good time playing octet music at Richard Ingham’s summer sax course at Knuston Hall that they decided they couldn’t bear to wait until the following August to repeat the experience. Now, we have a regular personnel, drawn from all across the North-West of England, and a regular rehearsal venue at Lymm in Cheshire.
The group is based on the idea that the Saxophone is a Good Thing, and of course everyone knows you can’t have too much of a good thing. So there are eight of us: two sopranos, two altos, two tenors, and two baritones, which are played by Helen, Gordon, Dave, Karoline, John, Mike, Stephen and Pauline respectively. All of us have “day jobs” (or did have, before retiring), and are involved in many other musical activities apart from the octet, including orchestral playing, concert bands, big bands, jazz groups and chamber music. Nothing else quite hits the saxophonic spot like eight saxophones all playing at once though!
As you might expect from our varied musical backgrounds, our repertoire includes jazz, folk-songs, classical and baroque transcriptions, show songs, and original pieces for saxophone octet, many of them composed or arranged by members of the SSO. We even have our own custom-written arrangement of “Happy Birthday to You”.
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Contact the SSO:- Telephone: 0161 442 9071e-mail: info@sovereignsaxoctet.co.uk
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