Based in New York City, Erin Rogers is a composer and saxophonist dedicated to new and experimental music.
Her works have been performed internationally, at the Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid; Museum Concert Hall, Taiwan; Le Cité Universitaire, Paris; and the World Saxophone Congress in St. Andrews, Scotland, with a growing number of performances each year. Her work Trajectories for 5 vocal-instrumentalists was performed for New York City Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, and featured in the 2015 Ecstatic Music Festival. Her works have been premiered by the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, Anubis Quartet,thingNY, Lost Dog Ensemble, IKTUS Percussion, Project Fusion, Colin Davin, and the Warszynski Trio, in venues such as Merkin Concert Hall, Roulette, Symphony Space, and the Cleveland Institute of Music. In 2013, Erin was awarded a Jerome Fund Commission from the American Composers Forum for Mother Earth, a work for flute, saxophone quartet and electronics, that premiered at Weill Recital Hall, Carnegie Hall.
Erin is co-artistic director of theatrically-charged experimental ensemble, thingNY. Called an “inventive new music cabal” by Time Out New York, thingNY has brought their blend of performance art and improvisation to theatres, concert halls, art galleries, and DIY venues around New York including Roulette, the Brick Theatre, Galapagos Art Space, Powerhouse Arena, Merkin Concert Hall, the Tank, Littlefield, theMetropolitan Museum of Art, Issue Project Room, Dixon Place, and The Stone, as well as various historical homes throughout and beyond the metro area as part of their traveling concert/sound installation, IN HOUSE. thingNY has held residencies at the LaGuardia Performing Arts Center and Flushing Town Hall, for their mass call-for-scores SPAM project, and has been featured in the Made HERE documentary series. New Music Box hailed thingNY’s first album, the eccentrically excessive opera ADDDDDDDDD, as “rapidfire… pulseracing… all consuming.” Their recent production, This Takes Place Close By, a new operatic work on the topic of storms, for multiple actors, readers and musicians, was developed at Incubator Arts and Standard Toykraft in New York, and toured throughout the East Coast and Canada. The opera received its official premiere in September, 2015 at Knockdown Center, a 50,000 square foot space in Maspeth, Queens, and featured a “stunningly effective mélange of singing, acting, electronics, and extended vocal techniques” (I Care If You Listen).
Erin is co-founder and tenor saxophonist of the New Thread Quartet, an ensemble of elite musicians committed to the creation and performance of saxophone quartet repertoire from New York City composers and beyond. With over a dozen engagements each season and a body of works from composers such asRichard Carrick, Ben Hjertmann, Kathryn Salfelder, Scott Wollschleger, Anthony Gatto, Kati Agocs, Michael Djupstrom, Roberto Kalb, and Marcelo Lazcano, the quartet has toured in the US and abroad, performing at universities in Virginia, Illinois, Arizona, New England Conservatory’s Jordan Hall and internationally at theWorld Saxophone Congress in St. Andrews, Scotland. Locally, New Thread has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Tenri Cultural Institute, the Bang on a Can Summer Festival Benefit,NYsoundCircuit, Con Vivo Jersey City, Bronx Community College, Queens College, and thingNY’s Immediacies Series. The quartet has collaborated with groups such as Tilt Brass, Ruah Dance, and IKTUS Percussion and has received support from the Aaron Copland Fund, the Cary New Music Performance Fund,New Music USA, and the Queens Council on the Arts.
An established saxophonist, Erin has toured worldwide as a soloist, chamber musician, and guest artist, with performances ranging from solo recitals in France to cover bands in Australia, playing with Music from Copland House, Fireworks Ensemble, mise-en, and PRISM. She performs regularly with IKTUS Combo, a mixed quartet of saxophone, guitar, piano and percussion, specializing in new chamber works. The Combo’s 2015 Midwest Tour included performances at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (CCM), Bowling Green State University‘s ‘Music at the Forefront,’ Kent State University‘s ‘Vanguard Series,’ Illinois State University,Constellation (Chicago), Oberlin Conservatory, and the 2nd Annual SIU Guitar Festival. A band member of indie-sensation Sweet Soubrette, Erin has collaborated with singers Helado Negro and Scott Stein, and can be heard at venues such as Cake Shop, The Bitter End, The Living Room, Barbes, and Le Poisson Rouge.
Born and raised in Western Canada, Erin completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Albertaand, in 2005, received master’s degrees in composition and performance from Bowling Green State University. Her major teachers were Mikel Kuehn, Elainie Lillios, John Sampen, Marilyn Shrude, William Street, Laurie Radford and Howard Bashaw. In July of 2004, she was the first female featured guest artist at the annual Taiwan Saxophone Camp in Taipei, Taiwan.
In 2006, Erin joined the publishing team at Peermusic Classical, located in midtown Manhattan. Erin is Treasurer of the Music Publisher’s Association. Founded in 1895, the MPA is the oldest music trade organization in the United States.