Recitals	Date
All Saints' Episcopal Church, Morristown, TN	February, 2008
Rascher Centennial Celebration, SUNY, Fredonia, NY, USA	November 10-11, 2007
Carson-Newman College, Jefferson City, TN, USA	October 25, 2007
Syracuse New Music Festival, NY, USA	November 12, 2006
Society of Composers Region II Conference, Clinton, NY, USA	November 10-11, 2006
Memmingen, Germany (concert and workshop)	May 29-30, 2006
Darmstadt, Germany (concert and workshop)	June 1, 2006
Converse College (Southeastern Composers League Forum), SC, USA	March 16-18, 2006
Carson-Newman College, Jefferson City, TN, USA	March 21, 2006

(auf Deutsch)

Duo parabolique et d’ivoire was founded in 2004 by composer/pianist/organist J. Ryan Garber and saxophonist Richard Scruggs. The genesis of their collaboration began with, naturally, a composition by Garber for Scruggs, Parabolisms, for saxophone and piano. It intrigued Garber that early saxophones were parabolic, not conical as modern ones, and composed a work exploring unique aspects of the sound and expressive possibilities of these instruments. The idea was born to explore new musical aspects of this combination through performances of both established and newer works in the saxophone & piano repertoire.


J. Ryan Garber is Assistant Professor of Music at Carson-Newman College where he teaches Composition, Theory, Organ, and Bassoon. A native of Virginia, he received music degrees from James Madison University and a Doctor of Music degree from Florida State University. As a composer, Garber has received awards and recognition from ASCAP, The College Music Society, and the American Composers Forum, among others. In 2002, the Tennessee Music Teachers Association presented Garber with its “Tennessee Composer of the Year” award that included a commission for a new work that was performed at their 2003 Convention in Nashville. He also received a grant from the American Music Center Composers Assistance Program for the December 2004 premiere of his Magnificat for chorus, soloists, and orchestra. In May, 2005, his Concerto for Piano and Orchestra was premiered in Roanoke, VA. Garber’s music is routinely selected for performance at national and regional conferences of the College Music Society, Society of Composers Inc., and the SoutheasternComposers League.

Richard Scruggs has performed widely in America, Germany, Sweden, Poland and the Netherlands as soloist and chamber musician in concert venues and festivals such as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (New York City), the Alte Oper (Frankfurt), Sophiensaal (Munich), the Internationale-Ferienkurse für Neue Musik (Darmstadt), and the Festival der Seltenen Besetzungen (Ludwigsburg). Several gifted composers have dedicated saxophone works to Scruggs, including Werner Wolf Glaser, Cristian Marina, Ryan Garber, Mark Alan Taggart, Alan Theisen, and Michael Sidney Timpson. He was for several years a student of the eminent saxophone soloist and pedagogue Sigurd Raschèr and in 1992 earned the Doctor of Music Degree from Florida State University. From 1993-2001 he was the saxophone instructor of the Tübinger Musikschule in Germany. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tennessee. Scruggs plays a parabolic saxophone built in 1927 according to the original acoustical design of the inventor, Adolphe Sax.

Repertoire — a sampling of current repertoire

Benson, Warren - Aeolian Song
Cowell, Henry - Air & Scherzo
Dressel, Erwin - Partita
Garber, J. Ryan - Parabolisms
Garber, J. Ryan - Resonances for piano solo
Glaser, Werner Wolf - Solosonat
Hába, Alois - Suita, Op. 99
Jacobi, Wolfgang - Sonate
von Koch, Erland - Sonata
Machá, Otmar - Plác Saxofonu
Maros, Miklós - Undulations
Reiner, Karel - Dve Skladby

Other works and programming possibilities are available...