THE ENSEMBLE

The Intimacy of Chamber Music, the Power of a Small Orchestra.
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A unique sextet, Saxback is a cocktail of wind instruments, most of which owe their creation to the inventive genius of Adolphe Sax – saxophones, saxhorn, and clarinets. This atypical ensemble of woodwinds and brass performs both transcriptions of works by Bach, Prokofiev, Debussy, or Bernstein and original compositions tailored to the group, with contributions from composers such as A. Markeas, T. Probst, N. Gouin, E. Goubert, M. Stefanelli, and many others.
Graduates of the conservatories of Paris, Lyon, and Amsterdam, the six musicians of Saxback are bound by a profound connection and shared joy of performance, making their concerts a dazzling display of musicality, energy, and emotion.
Formed in 2016, Saxback won second prize at the prestigious M-Prize International Chamber Music Competition in the United States in 2018. The ensemble performs at numerous festivals across France – including the Festival International de Musique de Besançon, the Flâneries de Reims, and La Folle Journée de Nantes – and collaborates regularly with the Concerts de Poche association. Their tours have taken them to Belgium, Turkey, and South Korea in 2019, with another nationwide tour planned in South Korea for 2024.
Saxback collaborates with Kiwi Production for its production and distribution.
The sextet’s repertoire is organized into modular programs: Retour (featuring Dessner, Bach, Scarlatti, Goubert, Berlioz), Tragic Love (Prokofiev, Debussy, Poulenc, Sibelius), and the ambitious Lumière Noire, scheduled for 2025–26. Saxback also collaborates with pianist N. Gouin in a septet program centered on Liszt’s Totentanz and Khoros, composed by Gouin and premiered at La Folle Journée de Nantes in 2025. The ensemble also offers a film-concert featuring two short films by Buster Keaton and a pedagogical project entitled A Day with Adolphe Sax, designed for conservatory students.