By JULES SHINKLE
BG Independent News
This week, an acclaimed chamber music ensemble with Bowling Green State University alumni will perform at a downtown Bowling Green bar.
Mixed Media is an Atlanta-based saxophone quartet made up by Lindsey Welp, Chris Murphy, Julien Berger and Dan Phipps. In 2022, they were awarded a Gold Medal in the 49th Annual Fischoff Competition, beating out hundreds of other musicians in the world’s largest chamber music competition.
The group is set to perform at the North American Saxophone Alliance Conference at Ohio State University, but not before they pay Bowling Green a visit. They will play Howard’s Club H on Thursday (March 12) at 7:30 p.m.
Welp and Murphy met while they were earning their graduate degrees at BGSU’s College of Musical Arts.
“It’s a homecoming,” said Welp. “We overlapped for one year, 2019. Chris was getting his Doctorate in Contemporary Music while I was getting my master’s.”
Berger, Phipps, and Welp met under similar circumstances while studying at the University of Georgia in Athens.
A semester after forming (with original members Grace Gelpi and Michael Chapa), the group had a very successful 2022 competition run. After scooping up first place in the Coltman Chamber Music Competition, they then got their Fischoff Gold Medal. Later that year, Fischoff sponsored the group to go on a two-week tour across the Midwest.
Mixed Media has since been busy commissioning new works and recording for projects – such as Welp’s dissertation album “Stories We Tell.”
“Since we got off the competition circuit and completed our programs, we tend to collaborate with living composers we know.”
When a visual artwork is described as being ‘mixed media,’ multiple mediums were employed to create it. The ensemble creates its own audio collages by challenging traditional expectations of classical chamber music.
“‘Mixed Media’ refers to mixing different genres and showing how versatile the saxophone quartet can be,” said Berger, the ensemble’s alto player.
Part of that versatility means bringing their eclectic repertoire to unconventional spaces – be it classical saxophone in dive bars or pop tunes in recital halls.
Their program for Thursday certainly reflects this. In addition to contemporary classical pieces, the quartet will play arrangements of Michael Jackson, Taylor Swift, Joe Hisaishi, and Henry Fillmore.
Berger said that their group’s namesake comes from their shared enjoyment of “showcasing different genres and eras of music to people.”
“It’s also the name of a beer,” Welp added with a wink. “We picked Mixed Media because Pabst. Blue Ribbon was already taken.”
Finally, a concert where no one needs to choose between beer and classical saxophone.
