Number of Majors (average): 18 (average)

Degree Offerings:  Performance, Education or BA in Music; Minors in Jazz Studies, Music Business, Special Education

Course Offerings:   Studio Lesson (1 hour weekly for all students)
    Master Class (weekly)
    Saxophone Ensemble
    Saxophone Quartets
    Saxophone Repertoire and Pedagogy
    Crane Saxophone Quartet (honors quartet by audition)

Ensemble Seating Auditions:  Twice a year; Orchestral Excerpts, Etudes, Required piece(s) and self-prepared selections.  This 'pool audition' determines placement in quartets, Crane bands, sax ensemble and members of the prestigious Crane Saxophone Quartet

Professional Opportunities:  Local performance venues; The Northern Symphonic Winds (a professional wind band comprised of Crane faculty and local professionals); Wally Siebel All-Star Big Band; regular opportunities for recitals and jazz gigs in area restaurants, coffee houses, recital halls, nearby towns, museums, art galleries and more.

Competitions:  Students routinely enter, place or win local, regional and national competitions.
The Crane School has a number of competitions leading to prestigious performing opportunities.

Graduate Placement:  Saxophone graduates have been accepted in major Graduate schools throughout the United States.

Professional Placement:  Saxophone graduates have gone on to perform in prestigious military bands, professional jazz ensembles, and universities throughout the U.S.  Many noted graduates are professors and teachers at colleges and universities.
The Crane School of Music is the oldest Music Education school in the country and has one of the highest placement percentages in the US and Canada.

Concert Opportunities:  With over 400 concerts a year, the Crane School offers a wide variety of concerts from within the school as well as a large number of guest artists and clinicians.  Potsdam is in close proximity to Ottawa and Montreal so that students can hear great orchestras, chamber ensembles, jazz festivals and more that come through those major, international cities.

The Crane School of Music

Music Majors: 600
Full Time Faculty: 60
Adjunct Faculty: 10

Degrees offered: BM in Performance, Music Education, Musical Studies, Music Composition, Music Business
 BA in Music
 Music Minor in Jazz Studies
 MM in Performance, Music Education, Music History and Literature, Music Composition

The State University of New York at Potsdam

Total students: 4,000
Undergraduates: 3,475
Graduates: 525

Timothy McAllister, Saxophone Professor

Hailed by critics nationwide for his "evocative renditions", "virtuoso artistry", and "beautifully rounded tone", Timothy McAllister has emerged as one of the foremost concert saxophonists of his generation.  He was Gold Medalist and Grand Prize Winner in the 2001 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and First Prize Winner in the 1993 North American Saxophone Alliance Young Artist Competition.  Other performance prizes and recognition have come from competitions in the U.S. and abroad, including the Biennial GAUDEAMUS International Interpreter’s Competition in the Netherlands.  Solo debuts include New York’s Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, and Merkin Hall, and he has appeared in other important venues and radio and television broadcasts throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.

McAllister has performed with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Hot Springs Festival Orchestra, the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, QUORUM, the PRISM Quartet, Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, Ann Arbor Symphony, Northern Symphonic Winds (NY) and the Houston Civic and Symphony Orchestras among others.  He was invited by acclaimed conductor Michael Tilson Thomas to perform as saxophonist with the New World Symphony throughout the 2000 Season, which included a rare North American performance of Giacinto Scelsi's I presagi for tenor saxophone, brass and percussion.  An advocate of new music, he has commissioned and/or premiered over 35 works for saxophone, and his critically acclaimed, internationally released recordings can be heard on the Centaur, Equilibrium, Naxos, Albany, Einstein, G.I.A. and AUR record labels.   This past year, his world premiere recording of Pulitzer Prize composer William Bolcom's Concert Suite for Alto Saxophone and Band received first-round Grammy Award nominations in three major categories.  He has also performed in many music theater and pit orchestra productions, and has appeared with numerous entertainers including Broadway star Patti LuPone.

Along with his duties as Assistant Professor of Saxophone at SUNY Potsdam, McAllister  currently teaches saxophone for the Interlochen Arts Camp (MI), and spent the 2000-02 Academic Year as visiting instructor of saxophone at The University of Michigan while completing doctoral studies.  At Michigan he  studied classical saxophone with Donald Sinta and conducting with H. Robert Reynolds, and was the first saxophonist to be honored with the School of Music's highest performance award, the Albert A. Stanley Medal.  Moreover, he recently won the Paul C. Boylan Alumni Award from The University of Michigan for his "significant contributions to the field of music."

For more information, please visit www.timothymcallister.com.