MANSFIELD, PA— The Zzyzx Quartet, proclaimed as one of the best saxophone quartets in the world, will be perform in concert at Steadman Theater on Sunday, January 29 at 2:30 p.m. The concert is free and open to the public.
Members of the quartet are employed in the West Point Academy Concert Band, The U.S. Navy Band, the Pershing’s Own Concert Band and the University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music respectively. Formed in 2007 at Indiana University, they have won many international prizes, performed high profile concerts, and commissioned many new works.
Stacy Wilson, Stephen Page, Matt Evans and Dana Booher make up the Zzyzx Quartet. The ensemble takes its name from the Zzyzx (pronounced ‘zie-zix’) Road, which stretches a four and a half miles off of I-15 in California at Exit 239. It is the route the group’s bari player takes whenever he drives to his home in Costa Mesa, CA.
The name is strange, memorable, and not to mention special as it is the last word listed alphabetically in atlases, dictionaries and directories in which the word is contained. A degree of mystery surrounds the area that Zzyzx Road leads to and local legends have dubbed it “the road to nowhere.”
To find out more about the Zzyzx Quartet, go to zzyzxquartet.com