18th World Saxophone Congress
14th July 2018, Zagreb, Croatia.
International Saxophone Committee General Assembly Minutes

International Saxophone Committee Present

  • Kenneth Tse (USA): President
  • Claude Delangle (France): Vice President
  • Philippe Geiss (France): Vice President
  • Barry Cockcroft (Australia): Secretary
  • Javier Valerio (Costa Rica)
  • Lev Pupis (Slovenia)
  • Sremec Dragan (Croatia), organizer of the 18th World Saxophone Congress in 2018 in Zagreb (Croatia).

Assembly was declared opened by President Kenneth Tse, at 10:00 AM.

Kenneth Tse welcomed attendees to the general assembly meeting outlining the following agenda:

  1. Comments from committee members.
  2. Philippe and Barry’s WSA presentation
  3. WSC 2021 Proposals
    1. Shanghai, China
    2. Medellín, Colombia
    3. Kurashiki, Japan
  4. Vote on WSC 2021 location
  5. Presentation of next ISC candidates
  6. Vote on new ISC

Kenneth Tse, president of the International Saxophone Committee gave congratulations to Dragan for both a successful congress and for becoming a grandfather a day earlier. Congratulations to everyone for amazing performances and thanks for coming. Kenneth expressed his honour in serving with the saxophone committee. He explained that the committee met several times including for a meeting in Slovenia early in 2018, a first time outside of the World Saxophone Congress. For the first time in the history of the organisation, the committee performed together as an ensemble. Kenneth thanked the members for their encouragement, support and trust and shared that he will step down after 9 years on the committee.

Claude Delangle thanked Kenneth for a wonderful job and gave a brief history of saxophone in Croatia. He shared that this Congress represents the culmination of growth in Croatia. He had been involved with Croatian saxophone for 35-40 years. He gave special thanks to Jean Pierre Lanfrey from the French Institute who really believed in the Croatian saxophone school. The World Saxophone Congresses are a way to celebrate a school. There have already been so many international events here including the Nochta Saxophone Competition. Claude also said that alongside Dragan Sremec, we must also thank the team. The most artistic thing in life is loving people.

Dragan thanks to the team with special thanks to Claude as he was very important to the development of saxophone in Croatia. Special thanks to Eugene Rousseau who founded this event with Paul Brodie. Dragan explained that he was a student of Rousseau’s and he has been honorary president of this Congress. All of Zagreb’s people were united for this event to include around 1900 people in the project. Thanks to members of the committee for advice in preparing the Congress.

Philippe Geiss recounted that during the last committee meeting in Bled, Slovenia, we decided to get started on the World Saxophone Alliance project. Starting with something simple, we can begin to form a place where saxophonists can share knowledge and ideas.

Barry Cockcroft shared the new website for the WSA (worldsaxalliance.com) and ideas and interest may be registered online. The WSA will operate separately from the International Saxophone Committee and people are welcome to contribute and share their knowledge.

The 3 presentations for the 2021 Congress were given to present their Congress concept to the delegates (20 minutes each). The outcome was as follows.

WSC 2021 Proposals

  • Kurashiki, Japan – 140 votes
  • Shanghai, China – 103 votes
  • Medellín, Colombia – 73 votes

The 19th World Saxophone Congress will be held in Kurashiki, Japan.

The vote for a new International Saxophone Committee began with a reading of all nominated names to ensure their presence as per the statutes. The final count for the committee is listed below. That signalled the end of the meeting at 12:00 as voting did take some time and further events were scheduled. The results of the committee election were later posted in the foyer with the following results. The 7th (non-elected) member of the International Saxophone Committee is the host of the 19th World Saxophone Congress, Toshikazu Nagase.

  1. Claude Delangle (France) – 205
  2. Philippe Geiss (France) – 161
  3. Barry Cockcroft (Australia) – 112
  4. Debra Richtmeyer (USA) – 110
  5. Shyen Lee (Thailand) – 106
  6. Marie-Bernadette Charrier (France) – 102
  7. Toshikazu Nagase (Japan)

 

  • Dragan Sremec (Croatia) – 83
  • Javier Valerio (Costa Rica) – 81
  • Xiao Lu Zhang (China) – 65
  • Julia Nolan (Canada) – 65
  • Timothy Roberts (USA) – 64
  • Sue McKenzie (Scotland) – 56
  • Daniel Duran (Spain) – 54
  • Lev Pupis (Slovenia) – 52
  • Allison Balcetis (Canada) – 49
  • Gordan Tudor (Croatia) – 44
  • Diana Tolmie (Australia) – 43
  • Anna Stepanova (Ukraine) – 41
  • Michael Krenn (Austria) – 21
  • Stella Arabatzeghen (Greece) – 20
  • Fabio Sammarco (Italy) – 18
  • Andrey Turygin (Russia) – 15
  • Detlef Bensmann (Germany) – 14
  • Lgeridis Giorgos (Greece) – 13
  • Athanasios Zervas (Greece) – 6