John-Edward Kelly

* 7 October 1958 in Fairfield, California, died on 12 February 2015 in Vero Beach, Florida; saxophonist, conductor and university teacher; studied at the College of Music of the Florida State University; among his teachers was Sigurd Raschèr, whose place as alto saxophonist in the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet he took over in 1981 and to which he belonged for ten years. He gave the premieres of more than 200 works for saxophone, among them 30 concertos for saxophone and orchestra. From 1996 to 2003 he was professor at the Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf, from 2000 to 2005 at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo; he also taught as professor of saxophone at the HfM Detmold. In 2005 he co-founded the Arcos Orchestra, which he conducted.