Kimberly Loeffert

co-author of "Enrapture" and "Hardline"

January 27, 2017

Dr. Kimberly Goddard Loeffert serves as clinical assistant professor of music theory at Oklahoma State University. Loeffert completed a Ph.D. in music theory at Florida State University, and she earned a D.M.A. and M.M. in saxophone performance, as well as an M.M. in music theory pedagogy from Michigan State University. She holds a B.M. in saxophone performance and jazz studies from Northwestern University. Her primary saxophone teachers include Joe Lulloff, Frederick Hemke, and Joseph Wytko.

An active chamber musician, Loeffert has won numerous chamber music prizes as a member of the h2 quartet, including first place at the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and first place at the North American Saxophone Alliance Quartet Competition. She can also be heard on five commercially available discs and a nationally syndicated PBS television episode of Backstage Pass.

Loeffert has performed at prestigious venues around the world, including the Cankar Dom (Slovenia), the Guarnerius Center for the Performing Arts (Serbia), Merkin Hall (New York City), the National Concert Hall (Ireland), the Sarajevo Music Academy (Bosnia), the Siam Paragon (Thailand), and the Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), in addition to university recital halls across the country.

Loeffert is a Vandoren and Yamaha Performing Artist.

h2 quartet's "Enrapture" is centered around the idea of wide-open spaces. The album features the openness of the Great Plains region, the enormity of mountains, the vast oceans, the limitless human mind, and the finality of death. Forrest Pierce's "The Kansas Rapture" portrays the diminishing population of small towns throughout Kansas. The composer explains "the American state of Kansas is a vortex of fundamentalist religion and spectacular, ecstatic weather. The belief in the second coming of Jesus to transport the faithful at the end of days is commonplace, here – yet it's not commonly known that they are already disappearing. The farming and ranching towns of the Kansas prairie are vanishing, and their dusty streets are returning once more to grass and sage." Gavin Bryars' "Alaric I or II" illustrates the majestic Alaric Mountain in France. Igor Karača's "Lost" depicts a vessel in distress while lost in the measureless and desolate sea. Tina Tallon's "corpus, fractum" conveys the utter limitlessness of the human mind as it breaks apart in despair, resulting in a never-ending catatonic state. Paquito D'Rivera's "A Farewell Mambo (to Willy)" is dedicated to Guillermo Alvarez Guedes and shows how the composer wishes to remember his dear friend.

The h2 quartet's audio publication "Hard Line" features an array of new compositions by American composers for saxophone quartet that were composed for the ensemble. The disc pushes the technical limits of the saxophone and features extended techniques, integrated electronic sounds, and prepared piano. A true collaborative effort with some of the most prolific contemporary composers in the United States, the disc features music by Drew Baker (Columbia College), David Biedenbender (Michigan State University), Igor Karača (Oklahoma State University), Mathew Rosenblum (University of Pittsburgh), Bill Ryan (Grand Valley State University), and Daniel Wohl.

URL: https://library.okstate.edu/news/celebratingbooks/2017-honorees-b/kimberly-loeffert

Last Updated: 12 January 2022