User:George Lobo

George Wolfe - Biography

Saxophonist George Wolfe has performed extensively throughout the United States and has also concertized in Europe, Cyprus, Costa Rica, Canada, India, Korea and Japan. He has appeared as a soloist with such ensembles as the United States Navy Band, the Saskatoon Symphony, the World Band at Disney World, the Chautauqua Motet Choir, The Indianapolis Children’s Choir, and the Royal Band of the Belgian Air force.

Wolfe’s teacher, Eugene Rousseau, describes him as "an artist of exceptional ability and great sensitivity." Critics have praised his playing as "brilliant and moving." His recordings have won praise from Steven Ellis of Fanfare Magazine and jazz great David Baker. Thomas Liley, writing in the Saxophone Symposium, states: "...Wolfe performs with beautiful tone, impeccable intonation, and assured technique in a wide range of stylistic contexts...He negotiates the wide range of dynamics and of register with exceptional ease." Critic John Lambert writing in the Winston Salem Spectator, described Wolfe’s performance as “a deeply satisfying and moving artistic experience.” He has also been heard on radio stations across the US, from Florida to New York to station KPFK in Hollywood, California.

Dr. Wolfe holds a Performance Certificate from Indiana University where he studies with Eugene Rousseau and Daniel Deffayet. He is a featured soloist on eight volumes of the compact disk series America’s Millennium Tribute to Adolphe Sax distributed by Arizona University Recordings and was recently included on Living with the Classics. He has presented master classes at the Paris Conservatory, Indiana University, and the Interlochen Center for the Arts, and he has taught as an artist-in-residence at Arizona State University, Klagenfurt Conservatory (Austria), the University of Saskatchewan (Canada), and at the University of San Jose in Costa Rica. His interests have extended beyond Western music traditions through an open fellowship awarded him by the Eli Lilly Endowment to study Hindustani music in New Delhi, India and at the Ali Akbar College of Music in San Rafael, California. Wolfe currently is Professor of Music at Ball State University (USA) where in 1997, he received the Outstanding Creative Endeavor award for his CD entitled Lifting the Veil. His most recent CD, Le Saxophone Mélodieux, was released in June of 2009.

From 2002 -2006, Dr. Wolfe served as Director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Ball State University. He frequently lectures on topics related to peace education and the role of the arts in the fight against social injustice. His lecture-recital, Music as a Form of Protest, features a video-acoustic composition by Martin Wesley Smith entitled Weapons of Mass Distortion. As a result of his contribution to Peace Studies and his performance of protest music, Professor Wolfe has been recognized by national conservative commentator David Horowitz as one of the “101 most dangerous academics in America.” George Ruckert, MIT world music professor and long-term disciple of sarode artist Ali Akbar Khan, has referred to George Wolfe as “a major musician of our time.