"Alice steps through the looking glass and the world is a melted fractal pattern. yesaroun' takes it one scene at a time."
-Tucker Lieberman, poet

What is the yesaroun' experience?

It’s worlds of sounds and concepts embracing every culture, time period and school of thought which are brought together, combined, juxtaposed and finally delivered to its audience through the unlikely medium of saxophone and percussion.

Saxophonist Eric Hewitt and percussionist Samuel Z. Solomon combine talents to form the yesaroun' Duo and have included the works of young composers of this generation along with the great composers of the past century. The Duo has commissioned over a dozen composers whose works have found inspiration from John Coltrane, James Brown and Detroit techno to Karlheinz Stockhausen, Orlande de Lassus, Martin Luther King Jr. and W.H. Auden.

A challenge as well as an opportunity to young composers and a treat for its audience, the yesaroun' Duo provides a wide breadth of coloristic possibilities. Hewitt arms himself with either soprano, alto, tenor, baritone saxophone or bass clarinet, and then can push each instrument to its limit by implementing every imaginable extended technique. Solomon sometimes commands dozens of instruments at once including everything from drums and gongs to frying pans and children's toys.

"What strikes me most about the yesaroun' concerts I've attended is that they are always a truly exciting and visceral experience. The programming is bold and inventive, and yet at the same time there is a great sensitivity to how the individual pieces complement and interact with one another. yesaroun's concerts, however, are not just entertaining (which they most definitely are), but also provocative, intelligent, and, in the end, important. yesaroun's commitment and dedication affects every level of their performances, from the insightful program notes to their musically inspired and technically gifted playing."
-Jefferson Friedman, composer, NYC

Programming has become a vitally important aspect of the yesaroun' experience. The Duo carefully, artfully and intelligently creates programs, putting works in place like the stone bricks of a cathedral. Each piece rests against another, aiding it, complimenting it and compensating for it. They take into account the flow of energy throughout the concert and the shift in modes of listening the audience must make for each piece. In doing this, the audience never gets too much of one thing, they never get too jolted by a quick change of aesthetic and they are always prepared for what is to come and smoothly carried from what came before. Each concert becomes a seamless large scale musical work.

With this control over programming, juxtapositions can be made that would normally seem jarring. You may find the visceral and funky WATT by Ken Ueno alongside the spiritual and profound works by Chinese composer Lei Liang; the engaging, interactive and comical Magic 8 Ball by Brooke Joyce (where the audience asks a Magic 8 Ball three questions, the answers to which determine the structure of the piece) alongside the dense, complex and academic Sequenza VIIb by Luciano Berio or Psappha by Iannis Xenakis; or the flowing, energetic and coloristic Suspended Contact by Shawn Crouch alongside the human and lyrical Songs by Charles Ives.

To reinforce the audience's experience, detailed program notes are always provided, including composers' biographies and information on the pieces, and are often supported with spoken introductions before each piece. These introductions are short, clear and concise and are intended to introduce the music and prepare the audience for what they are about to hear. With this, seeds of curiosity and knowledge are planted which will blossom as they listen into a fruitful appreciation, understanding and enjoyment of the music and performance experience. The Duo believes that with the right preparation, anyone who can appreciate good art, regardless of their level of exposure to new music, can enjoy a great work of even the most exotic or complex music.

Through artistic and intelligent performance, smart programming, comprehensive program notes and spoken introductions, the yesaroun' Duo has been able to engage and thrill seasoned listeners -musicians with high expectations, lots of experience with new music and a high understanding of performance and composition practices- and lay listeners -those people who may have never heard a note of contemporary art music before. Even audience members who would normally turn away in disgust from modern dissonant music are now actively listening, understanding, embracing and enjoying it. Audiences young and old agree that the yesaroun' Duo creates the perfect environment for enjoying new music.

"Modern music is so cool!"
-Student, Longmeadow High School, Longmeadow, MA, after a yesaroun’ performance

"Quality of music, rapport with audience, enthusiasm - yesaroun' Duo was terrific!"
-Wilma and Norman Michaels, music lovers, Stockbridge, MA

The Duo's focus on audience education parallels their commitment to educating young composers. In the summer of 2001, yesaroun' spent one week at the Walden school, a camp/school for composers ages 10-18 in Dublin, New Hampshire, holding open rehearsals, giving lectures, working with the students and giving a concert of faculty works. With the yesaroun' Duo, the composer/performer relationship has become an art in itself.

"A close composer/performer relationship is the most important opportunity a musician can ask for. My experience writing Suspended Contact for the yesaroun' Duo was just that. I can't tell you what it means as a young composer to be able to work at such a detailed level of performance with dedicated and interested performers. I had known that they were both exceptional players and advocates of new music, but I didn't realize until the first rehearsal what respect they would have for the composer. I was amazed at the care that each of them took to keep my musical vision intact, while tailoring the work to be idiomatic to the instruments. Often sections of near impossible-to-perform writing were worked out through their suggestions, and in the end making a piece with which both myself and yesaroun' have been extremely happy. I feel that my career as a composer really began with this work, and I can only hope that the performer/composer relationships of other ensembles throughout the country are as exciting and powerful as the ones created by Sam and Eric."
-Shawn Crouch, composer, New Haven, CT

Suspended Contact was written for the Duo in 1999 and premiered in December of that year. It has since been performed by yesaroun' 12 times in 6 different cities. The piece went on to win first prize at the 2001 Percussive Arts Society Composition Competition and is published with Honey Rock Publishing.

In just the past few months, yesaroun' has expanded their composer promotion efforts to global proportions through their web site. yesaroun.com has become a source of information visited by people from all over the world (England, France, Japan, Denmark, Russia, Malaysia, Israel, Costa Rica, to name a few). In addition to concert dates and information on the Duo itself, a complete repertoire listing is provided with program notes, composers' biographies and composers' contact information. yesaroun.com is probably the best online source for information on saxophone and percussion music and composers listed on the page are now getting many requests for scores.

“I thoroughly enjoyed working with yesaroun' Duo both on a professional and personal level. Their enthusiasm for bringing new music to life is both inspiring and fun! I felt privileged to have written a piece for such a lively ensemble and was quite impressed by their accuracy and musicality.  I was further complemented when I was contacted by  musicians requesting a copy of my piece solely because they had found it listed on yesaroun's website. It is this kind of composer-performer connectedness that makes being a musician satisfying.”
-Rebekah Griffin, composer, Long Island, NY

Having already established themselves on an international level through the web site, yesaroun’ will surely follow with concerts - expanding out of their home base, the greater New York and Boston areas, to be heard all over the country and perhaps the world in hopes to share the yesaroun’ experience with all those willing to taste it.

"yesaroun' explores the experimental fringe where classical music meets Coltrane and young, avant-garde composers dare to be heard. It's impossible to describe the experience in words, so just hold onto your seat and let the boys take you for a ride."
-Fred Berk, producer