Belurusian saxophonist Andrej Lakisov gives a funky rendition of my composition Beat Me.

Sydney saxophonist James Nightingale plays my composition Bo, a piece I wrote for him in 1999. Nice one Jim!

Composer Perry Goldstein

I have just finished 10 days working with American composer Perry Goldstein. He has written works for such notable performers as Juilliard Quartet cellist Joel Krosnick and pianist Gilbert Kalish, pianist Eliza Garth, the Aurelia, Prism, and Capitol Saxophone Quartets, bass clarinetist Michael Lowenstern, saxophonists Cory Barnfield, Arno Bornkamp, Joseph Lulloff, and Kenneth Tse, and the Escher String Quartet.

I first contacted Perry after hearing his excellent alto saxophone & piano work ‘Fault Lines’ performed by Kenneth Tse in Melbourne in 2005 and have remained in regular contact since then. It was great to finally meet Perry in person and he had kindly agreed to be my compositional mentor while I wrote a new piece for soprano saxophone & piano.

I spent each day playing my sax testing ideas for inclusion in this new piece. I used multitrack improvising to help me compose. I would start with a basic piano part and then improvise over the top multiple times into separate tracks. I could then listen back to this material, feed some of it into the piano part and begin construction of the different sections of the work. It is a faster way to work and it feels more spontaneous to me.

I am very pleased to have received significant support from the Australia Council for the Arts in their recent funding round. With financial assistance from the Australia Council I will be attending both the International Saxophone Symposium in January and the British Saxophone Congress in London in February. Both events will give me opportunity not only to perform new Australian music but also to meet some of the world’s finest saxophonists and learn more about two very different approaches to saxophone.

During the trip I will also have the opportunity to complete and workshop my new sonata for soprano saxophone and piano. I will be premiering this, my first major work, in London with Adam Pinto (Rompduo) and can’t wait to have a clue about writing for the piano!

Congratulations to the other grant recipients and I was pleased to see that composer Katy Abbott, who has written saxophone music for me, received funding to attend the Banff Centre for the Arts in Canada. More music for saxophone Katy?

I am looking forward to performing at the International Saxophone Symposium in the USA next month. The opening night concert with the United States Navy Band will feature 3 other soloists including Branford Marsalis – international recording artist, Chien Kwan-Lin – Assistant Professor of Saxophone at the Eastman School of Music and MUCS Timothy E. Roberts – Principal Saxophone of the U.S. Navy Band. I will be premiering a new concerto ‘Flying Colours’ for alto saxophone & band written by Australian composer Matthew Orlovich, published by Reed Music.

It is a long flight to play for 12 minutes, so I will be also be giving a recital of ‘Sax Down Under’ a selection of my own compositions and Crazy Logic, Matthew Orlovich’s fantastic piece for alto saxophone & piano. I will finish up with a masterclass during this busy weekend and look forward to meeting and hearing lots of great saxophone players!

Entering its 34th consecutive year, the International Saxophone Symposium will be held January 7 and 8, 2011 at 8:00pm at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. The event is free, open to the public, and brought about for the enjoyment and fulfillment of all members of the general community. Because of this mission, we are proud to have one of the largest audiences of any saxophone-only event in the country today.

http://www.navyband.navy.mil/saxophone_symposium.shtml

Many thanks to American saxophonist Kenneth Tse for performing my solo saxophone piece ‘Rock Me‘ on his recent masterclass and recital tour.

April 24-27, 2010
Concert and master class tour:
April 25th Andrea’s Music Salon, Philadelphia
April 26th George Mason University, Fairfax, VA
April 27th University of Delaware, Newark, DE

Kenneth is planning to play the piece a few more times this year:

June 28-July 3, 2010
14th International Saxophone Meeting, Nova Gorica, Slovenia

July 30-August 1, 2010
Hong Kong International Saxophone Workshop and Recital, Hong Kong

August 6-8, 2010
Melbourne University and Monash University Masterclasses and recitals, Melbourne, Australia

August 10-13, 2010
Master class at Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Sydney, Australia

I have just finished the score for my composition Rock Me! It is now available for sale through Reed Music. I wrote this piece at the end of 2007 when I was undertaking a residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts. As with many of my pieces I started out with an improvisation and gradually shaped it into a permanent unchanging composition. You can have a listen to one of the first iterations of the piece from the first performance in 2007. I have mostly played the piece on alto, but it works very well on tenor too – any sax should be fine. It is a little more difficult than I first intended, especially looking at the score but it fits under the fingers with no great complications. Perhaps the most difficult aspect of the piece is the rapid tonguing and the relentless nature of the piece.

I performed this piece in its near final form at the World Saxophone Congress in Bangkok in July and was pleased that Kenneth Tse was able to attend the performance. I wrote the piece for Kenneth and look forward to hearing his first performance of it.

Thank you for visiting the website of Australian saxophonist and composer, Barry Cockcroft.

On this site, you will find recordings, sheet music excerpts, program notes and background information for many of my compositions. I hope that you will find this useful.

If there is anything else that you would like to know, please ask!

Played my music lately?
Please let me know if you have played one of my compositions recently. I would love to hear about your latest performances.

Let me know in advance and I can list it on this site.

Do you have an audio or video recording of your performances?
Send me the recording or link and I would be happy to review it for inclusion on this website.