Shockingly Modern Saxophone Festival: Q&A with John Sampen and Mark Bunce

The Shockingly Modern Saxophone Festival celebrates new and experimental music for saxophone. It explores the nearly unlimited sonic potential of the saxophone through new composition, improvisation, extended performance techniques, microtonality, electronic music, multimedia, and other experimental elements. The festival features performances by the Augustana saxophone students and faculty, as well as an annual guest artist. By pushing the saxophone to its technical and expressive limits, these performances challenge and reshape our sense of what music can be.

The 2026 guest artists are John Sampen (saxophone) with Mark Bunce (electronics).

All events are free and open to the public.

Schedule:

• 10:30 a.m.: Augustana Saxophone Studio
• 11 a.m.: Saxophone Masterclass with John Sampen
• 2:30 p.m.: Faculty recital, Randall Hall
• 3:30 p.m.: Q&A with John Sampen and Mark Bunce
• 7:30 p.m.: Guest artists recital, John Sampen and Mark Bunce, "In Two Worlds"

About John Sampen

John Sampen is recognized as an outstanding artist in contemporary music literature. He has commissioned and premiered over 80 works, including compositions by Albright, Bolcom, Cage, Subotnick, and Ussachevsky. In 1970, he was a recitalist and certificate winner at the International Geneva Concours in Switzerland. A recipient of several NEA consortium and recording awards, Sampen has been involved with commissions, premieres and/or recordings of new music by Adler, Albright, Babbitt, Beerman, Martino, Mays, Shrude, Subotnick and, Wuorinen. He regularly performs contemporary and traditional saxophone repertoire in recital with pianist/composer Marilyn Shrude. Currently a Distinguished Research Artist Professor at Bowling Green State University, Dr. Sampen is former president of the North American Saxophone Alliance and clinician for the Conn-Selmer Company and Légère Reeds.

About Mark Bunce

Mark Bunce is a composer, and former recording engineer/electronics technician for the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music and the director of Recording Services at BGSU. He holds degrees from BGSU and Olivet College. A veteran of the recording industry for over 35 years, Bunce has engineered innumerable compact discs and recordings for such labels as Newport Classics, Centaur Records, Opus One, Sony Classics, Koch International, Albany, AMP Records, Orion, Neuma, Vox and Capstone. He has also engineered more than a dozen contemporary music series for public radio, and composed and engineered soundtracks for award-winning corporate videos and PBS signatures.