Vita

I was born in Rimouski, in the province of Québec, Canada and began my studies at the Conservatoire de Musique à Rimouski. Transferring to Northwestern University in Chicago, I completed my Bachelor Degree in 1983 and my Master Degree in Saxophone Performance in 1984. I was at that time teaching assistant of Dr. Frederick L. Hemke.

In the Autumn of 1984 I moved to Basel, Switzerland, where I studied with Mr. Iwan Roth, completing an Artist Diploma “with Excellence” in May 1986.

In the Fall of 1986 I joined the music faculty at the University of Würzburg, Germany, where I taught saxophone and chamber music until 2002. While in this position, I founded the Würzburger Saxophone Quartet and the DesChênes-Königshausen Duo for saxophone and piano. From September 2006 until March 2010 I was Director of the Music School at the city of Neresheim, Germany.

During the Fall of 1987 I toured eastern Canada and the USA with the Takai Duo (music for saxophone and percussion). From 1994 until 1996 I was member of Ensemble Kontrast in Nuremburg. I was guest twice at the famous Schleswig Holstein Music Festival in Germany.

In 1996 I recorded the complete work for saxophone of the renowned German composer Berthold Hummel. Since 2000 I have performed and recorded as a regular member of the Munich Brass Ensemble. In 2001 I was invited to join the “Vierfarben Saxofon Quartett” and with the ensemble recorded in 2003 the CD Barockoko.

My musical interests are varied, and my talents are manifold. I am both a performer a composer and arranger, and have since 1987 taken part in well over 1500 theatre performances (musicals, operetta and opera) and in more than seventy productions, as well as playing numerous symphony concerts, among others at the prestigious Salzburger Festspiele.

As a soloist I have performed with orchestras in both Europe and North America and in the summer of 2000 I was invited to perform many of my compositions for saxophone and orchestra at the Festival Musique en Fleur in Canada.

My composition style could be defined as Classic-Jazz-World Music cross-over with sometimes an impressionistic touch. Some of my compositions were commissioned by the European Brass Academy and endorsed by the Canadian Embassy in Berlin. In 2007 I composed the Music for the children musical “Die Legende des Nikolaus” (The Legend of Santa Claus) which I also authored. I have arranged proficiently, for brass ensembles among other things, and have adapted for saxophone quartet many of W.A. Mozart compositions such as the Magic Flute and Figaro’s Hochzeit Overture, the Andante of the piano concerto KV 467 and Adagio and Fuga KV546. Several of my arrangements and adaptations have been published and recorded by renown ensembles.