In Conversation with Jean-Marie Londeix

Jean-Marie Londeix, one of the most important and influential saxophonists of the last fifty years, discusses with William Street his life as a solo performer, the works which have been written for him, and his legendary saxophone school in Bordeaux. He will talk about the tremendous progress in saxophone technique in the last few decades, and some of the works which demonstrate this.

Jean-Marie Londeix is a concert saxophonist and professor, from the Gironde region of France.  He played piano and violin, but by the age of fourteen he had obtained a First Prize in saxophone from the Bordeaux Conservatory, and played in his family ensemble.  In 1948 he began studying with Marcel Mule at the Paris Conservatoire, from where he graduated with the highest honours. As a concert soloist, recitalist; or conductor he has performed more than 600 concerts and there are over 250 works dedicated to him.

Over the years, many international students studied with him at the Bordeaux Conservatory He has presented masterclasses in Europe, North America, Scandanavia, Japan, etc. He has authored very many teaching methods and he is regarded as one of the foremost authorities on saxophone performance and pedagogy.

"One of the greatest musicians of our time" (Edison Denisov)

"Dean of French saxophonists who has made Bordeaux the world's leading center of saxophone studies" (Washington Post)

"A model for classical saxophone" (Ramon Ricker)

"There is no one like you in France, or anywhere for that matter, in terms of your contributions to traditional and contemporary saxophone literature and pedagogy" (Frederick Hemke),

In 2007 Jean-Marie Londeix donated to the City of Bordeaux his collection of 8000 musical pieces, 2000 classsical saxophone recordings, several thousand books concerning the saxophone, photos, and a large impressive document archive, which established the European Center for Saxophone.