Steven Mackey’s Anemology Premieres in Monterey with Timothy McAllister
Steven Mackey’s Anemology for saxophone soloist Timothy McAllister receives its world premiere with the Monterey Symphony and Jayce Ogren in October.
Steven Mackey’s Anemology—a saxophone concerto dedicated to Timothy McAllister—receives its world premiere on October 18-19 with the Monterey Symphony and Jayce Ogren. Following the world premiere, McAllister also performs the new concerto with the Utah Symphony and David Robertson (Oct 24-25) as well as the Seattle Symphony and Lawrence Renes (Nov 20-22) for additional performances. The concerto was co-commissioned by the Monterey Symphony, Gail Straith Commissioning Fund, Seattle Symphony, and Utah Symphony.
“[McAllister] possesses a rare and special virtuosity which I’ve become familiar with through various collaborations over the past 20 years. His playing howls, grooves, flutters, and flows like the wind,” says Mackey.
The pair met in 2004 when Mackey composed Animal, Vegetable, Mineral for the PRISM Quartet—deemed “one of America’s finest saxophone quartets for three decades” by The New Yorker—of which McAllister is a member. The PRISM Quartet also premiered Mackey’s Blue Notes and Other Clashes with So Percussion in 2016.
> Listen to Animal, Vegetable, Mineral
“Anemology, the science, is the study of air movement … and so is music. Music and wind are invisible except for the movement they cause,” says the composer, whose affinity for science traces to his university days as a physics major. “The sense of movement—more than just the sound of things—is what drives me as a musician, as a composer. It’s not just the rate of movement, it’s the medium that one is moving through that is of interest to me. How viscous is it? Am I moving through oil? Anemology is kind of a fantasy of how movement goes, how things can move, how music can move.”
Mackey worked closely with McAllister during the composition process to explore the saxophone’s range of sounds, textures, and extended techniques, shaping the wind-inspired sound world the composer envisioned. “In Anemology, the saxophone soloist is the wind and the orchestra is the landscape, topography, scenery, etc. that is stirred and animated by its movement,” says Mackey.
The 20-minute work has three distinct movements that explore different attributes and behaviors of wind. The first movement is “Spindrift,” which simulates the feeling of a rising motion, like that of riding in a hot air balloon. The second movement is called “Soughing,” which refers to the sound that the trees make when wind passes through it, characterized by wind chimes and rain sticks in the percussion section.
The last movement “Aeolian Howl” was inspired by the sound that wind makes when it encounters an obstacle. Mackey explains, “If wind is just blowing and there’s no obstacle, it doesn’t make any sound. But when it encounters something, it makes a roar or a whine, and that’s what the saxophone is, it can make a howl, or a roar, or a whine, depending on what obstacles Tim, with his fingers, puts in its path.”
Mackey is featured as Seattle Symphony’s Artist in Focus during the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 seasons. Highlights of this season’s residency include the performances of Anemology, as well as his recent work RIOT for choir and orchestra, performed with the Seattle Symphony and Seattle Symphony Chorale conducted by Xian Zhang, with mezzo-soprano Alicia Olatuja and Mackey on electric guitar as featured soloists (Jun 18-21).
Concert Information
Saturday, October 18 at 7:30pm PDT
Sunday, October 19 at 3pm PDT
Sunset Center | Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA
More info
Monterey Symphony
Jayce Ogren, conductor
Timothy McAllister, saxophone
STEVEN MACKEY Anemology (World Premiere)
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 2
> Further information on Work: Anemology
Photo: Kah Poon