University of Miami School of Music

Contact: Annette Herrera

305.284.1607

February 18, 2005

UM TO HOST FIRST U.S. DEMONSTRATION OF

NEW POLYPHONIC WIND INSTRUMENT

CORAL GABLES, FL – The University of Miami’s Frost School of Music will be hosting musical instrument maker Francois Louis as he demonstrates his new instrument, the Aulochrome, on Monday, March 21 in Fillmore Hall. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. and includes a demonstration and lecture on the instrument’s conception and creation.

The Aulochrome is a new polyphonic and chromatic woodwind instrument. It resembles two soprano saxophone bodies and uses a revolutionary mechanism, allowing the keys of both pipes to be played either separately or together over the entire range. Any possible interval can be played chromatically from the lowest note of one pipe to the highest note of the other pipe. This creates new tone effects by totally acoustic means and offers the possibility of playing contrapuntal lines. There is only one Aulochrome in existence - the March demonstration at UM marks the first appearance of the prototype in the United States.

Mr. Louis has been designing saxophone mouthpieces, reeds, and flute headjoints since 1980 and has worked with renowned saxophonists, including Joe Lovano, Bob Berg, and Ronnie Cuber. He began work on the prototype for the new instrument in 1999 and completed it in October of 2002. The Aulochrome was débuted in Europe in 2002 at Maison de Radio France. Fabrizio Cassols premiered Philippe Boesmans’ Fanfare III for Aulochrome and Orchestra, accompanied by the Baden-Baden and Fribourg orchestra, Sylvain Cambreling conducting.

This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited and on a first come first served basis. For more information about Francois Louis’s demonstration, please email Gary Keller at gary@garykeller.net. Further information on the instrument can be found at www.aulochrome.com .

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