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WFIMC Café: Daniel Gauthier

Artists
Insights

The great Saxophone player talks about his instrument and the Aeolus Competition in Dusseldorf

WFIMC: You have been close to the Aeolus Competition from the very beginning…

Daniel Gauthier: Yes, I was on the jury of the very first competition. Sieghart Rometsch, the director of the competition, came to visit me, clarinetist Ralph Manno and oboist Christian Wetzel in Cologne, asking us to develop a program, to give him advice and help him create the Aeolus. That was in 2006, but we are still very much involved in the competition. Ironically speaking, it´s a bit funny that we are so close, as we are all professors in Cologne, and the Aeolus is in Dusseldorf. The two cities have always been rivals and people are overly critical of each other.

You are not on the jury this year, but you have been there a few times?

They would like us to be on the jury almost every time, they are incredibly loyal, but I think it´s not helpful to be there every time. I´ve been on the jury maybe 3 or 4 times since the first edition, and I will probably be back sometime in the future, but in the meantime, I just try to support and give advice.

Looking back at 2006, how has the competition changed over the years? As a saxophone player, why should I apply for the Aeolus?

The competition has grown up incredibly fast. At the beginning, it felt almost like an experiment, so see how it would work. But now, it is recognized, and it has become one of the big competitions- together with Andorra and Dinant, in Belgium, where Adolphe Sax was born.
But when young artists apply for the Aeolus Competition, they should realize that there is a big difference in Dusseldorf: they have a jury comprised of players of three different instruments, whereas elsewhere, there are only saxophonists.

What does that mean in terms of playing and repertoire?

The choice of repertoire is quite different. In Dusseldorf, we have to compete with horn players and clarinetists, so there is a lot of focus on the musical aspects of your playing. In Andorra, where they have a big saxophone festival along with the competition, it´s a celebration of the instrument, of new repertoire, and also of the technical aspects of saxophone playing. You see, saxophone technique has developed incredibly fast over the past 20 years. I remember being together with Paul Vontzen, a horn player, at an internal competition at the Hochschule here in Cologne. We listened to a saxophone player, one of my students, playing a new piece. It was four or five minutes long and incredibly fast and difficult. At the end of the piece, Paul told me: “the amount of notes in this piece, you know, I think in my entire life I have never played so many notes!”

So the standard of saxophone playing has changed a lot?

Most definitely. The technical aspects of saxophone playing have changed incredibly fast. It´s hard to compare it to other instruments, except maybe the cello. There was a famous Hungarian cellist, Janos Starker. When he was at the end of his career and stopped playing, he once said in an interview: “When I was young and finished my studies at the university, the best players who did their final exams back then would not pass the entrance exam of the same university today”. It´s a bit like that with saxophone. Every year, there are new works, more pieces, and every year they become more difficult and almost impossible to play. At the beginning, there seems to be only one player who miraculously can master a new piece. Two years later, there are ten, and six years later, everyone can play it.
It´s great to see this evolution and it´s wonderful to have all these new pieces, but the danger with this is that some players focus a little too much on technical issues.

As a young saxophone player, what are the options, what are the opportunities I have to make a career? And how can these competitions help?

This is a very important point. You see, a saxophone player cannot have an orchestral career. This is the main difference with all our wind player colleagues: there are no job opportunities other than teaching, chamber music and solo playing. This is why a competition win is much more important for us saxophone players, and this is why, whenever there is a major saxophone competition, everyone is there- the best young players from all over the world. Taking part in a saxophone competition also means you will get to perform with an orchestra, which is very special for us and much more rare than for a string or piano player. If you win, you will get concerts- and here the Aeolus also stands out: you won´t get just one concert, they really try to give you as many opportunities as possible.

On the other hand, at the Aeolus Competition you are not only among saxophone players, you have to compete with two other instruments- horn and oboe.

That´s correct. It´s hard, a very hard aspect of this competition. The selection is very fast, and already after the first round, they have to cut a lot of players- very good players, who won´t get to perform in the second round. At the end, only one player from each category will remain for the finals.

 

Gauthier and Alban Gerhard
Daniel Gauthier with Cellist Alban Gerhard

 

But this means that theoretically, even if you have two oboe players who are better than the top saxophonist, saxophone will make it to the final?

That´s right- that is the idea: to have one finalist for every instrument. I remember one year at one of the first competitions when a clarinetist came to us after the semifinal and said: “I am sorry, I didn´t learn the concerto from memory, and I cannot play”. It was completely unexpected, we were a little uncertain what to do, and we had to make a choice. The clarinetist ranked second was on a level far below the first one, so we decided to take a second bassoon player. But after this incident, the regulations were renewed and changed, and it is now mandatory that only one player from each category can perform at the final.
So with this situation, every finalist is actually a “big” winner, even though it sounds less exciting if you “only” win third prize.

This means that the semifinal is actually the real final for each category?

Yes. After the third round, which is already with orchestra, the final is only a bonus, where everyone is a winner.

That makes it very different from other saxophone competitions.

Indeed, it is very different. Elsewhere, you have only saxophone players, saxophone jury, and saxophone repertoire. It´s equally hard, and for the jury it is incredibly difficult to be fair. At the Adolphe Sax in Dinant, the first round lasts a whole week, and it is very complicated to compare so many players, between the first day and the last, and be fair. In Andorra, it´s a little smaller as they have a video selection before, and that makes it easier. At the same time, it´s a whole saxophone festival, so that makes it a lot more attractive for all the players, even if they drop out.
But getting back to the Aeolus Competition- I think it helps competing with other instruments, learning about them, and widening your horizon, so to speak. It´s also interesting to have a jury which is comprised of players of other instruments.

What´s your advice to young players who are taking part in one of these competitions?

For me it´s important to see how far a player can go with a concept, and idea, and how he or she can develop this idea so it will touch, not impress. It´s the same as if you go to a concert. 
If you play in front of a jury and you play only for the jury, and not for the audience, it´s the worst thing you can do. You should always stay yourself. Any audience will recognize if you stay yourself, if you do something authentic.

©WFIMC 2025/FR
images© Daniel Gauthier