Sound Investment: Grant Fuels Music Education Initiative
Ole Miss professor and Assembly Quartet receive funding to make saxophone repertoire more accessible
OXFORD, Miss. – A new Mississippi Arts Commission project grant is music to the ears for University of Mississippi music professor Adam Estes. With it, he and his Assembly Quartet can continue developing their musical project for saxophone students throughout the country.
"While much music of great quality has been written for saxophone quartet, often that music can be quite challenging for young musicians," said Estes, an Ole Miss professor of music who teaches saxophone and woodwinds.
Estes and his quartet of music professors – including Jeff Heisler, of Oakland University; Ian Jeffress, from Western Carolina University; and Matthew Younglove, of Tennessee Tech University – decided to take their passion for saxophone and chamber music and make it more available and playable for students.
"The mission of the Assembly Quartet is centered around access and education of music for saxophonists," Heisler said.
And with this mission, the Pedagogy Project was born.
The Assembly Quartet has shared the initial music from its Pedagogy Project with teachers and students in Oxford, as well as select other cities across the Southeast. Photo by Kevin Bain/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services
"The Pedagogy Project is designed to better serve developing and emerging saxophone quartets at the pre-college and early college level," Estes said.
The quartet released the initial album of this endeavor, "The Pedagogy Project, Volume 1: Some Assembly Required" (Mark Custom Records), earlier this year. Thanks to the Mississippi Arts Commission grant, the group can commission new music for its sophomore album and collection.
Composers Amber Ferenz, Russell Holland and John Vela are charged with creating the new material. This will be Ferenz's first contribution for saxophone quartet, while Vela will compose a mariachi work and Holland will feature a concert march.
"Commissioning new music to fill a void in the repertoire is paramount to this project," Estes said.
The quartet plans to perform the new music in concerts, generate reference recordings and publish both the recorded and printed music with Mark Records and Just A Theory Press.
The group has shared the initial music from the project with teachers and students in Oxford, as well as San Antonio, Texas; Knoxville, Tennessee; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Fairfax, Virginia; and Lake Charles, Louisiana.
"The response to this project by students and teachers has been overwhelmingly positive throughout the nation, and it is our hope that this music will find its way on prescribed music lists for state solo and ensemble festivals." Estes said.
Top: The Assembly Quartet – (from left) Jeffrey Heisler, Ian Jeffress, Matthew Younglove and Adam Estes – is using a Mississippi Arts Commission grant to fund its Pedagogy Project, which aims to make saxophone music more available and playable for students, particularly those in high school and early college years. Photo by Kevin Bain/Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services
By
Marisa C. Atkinson
Campus
Office, Department or Center
Published
August 20, 2025