Hailed as a “winning combination in every way!”, Decho was founded by Sarah Marchitelli and Jacob Swanson in 2011 with the intention of sharing the saxophone as a concert instrument of wide ranging capability. Critically acclaimed for their “blend and precision”, the ensemble has performed throughout North America and Europe. Following years of continuous collaboration, in 2019 Dr. Katherine Petersen joined Decho to champion works for voice and saxophone.
Presenting on concert series, television, and radio, the Decho Ensemble has collaborated with chamber orchestras, poets, dance companies, and ensembles/instrumentalists in addition to their all saxophone programming. Decho has presented at the North American Saxophone Alliance Regional and Biennial Conferences, United States Navy International Saxophone Symposium, the Women Composers Festival of Hartford, International Congress of Voice Teachers, and the Cleveland Uncommon Sound Project. Since 2016 the Decho Ensemble has participated in residencies at Mercyhurst University, Idaho University at Moscow, and with the Ny Musikks Komponistgruppe in Oslo, Norway as part of their inaugural PULS Festival.
The Decho Ensemble performs on vintage Buescher saxophones built in the United States.
Decho Ensemble will be joined by friend of CUSP's, Drew Hosler.
Decho Ensemble will perform works by Robert McClure, Lila Meretzky, Marc Mellits, Lori Laitman, and Ruby Fulton.
Carolyn Borcherding is a composer and sound artist predominantly interested in building sounding and visual worlds within which performing bodies and audio gestures can exist together in fluid relationships. Her body of work ranges from pieces for solo instrument to multimedia ensembles consisting of video, electronically produced sound, and acoustic instruments. In her multimedia works, she considers each medium an essential performing body in which the media interact with, relate to, and inform one another. In fixed media works, she experiments particularly with the creation and destruction of the listeners’ sense of space. Her works have increasingly explored narrative constructs related to historical, cultural, and personal matters.
Carolyn received her master’s degree in music composition at Western Michigan University and her doctorate at the University of Illinois. She is currently Assistant Professor in Composition at Baldwin Wallace University.
Borcherding will be joined by Hollis Whittman on vibraphone.