The Italian Saxophone Quartet, with its 40 year history, is one of the longest-lived groups currently active on the world stage. Shortly after their founding, the ISQ won a number of important chamber music competitions, including the unanimous First Prize at the prestigious Premio Ancona. Since then, they have been giving exciting and eclectic performances to adoring crowds from New York to Moscow, Athens to Tokyo.

Over 40 compositions written by eminent contemporary composers have been dedicated to the ISQ. The ISQ has performed the world and/or European premieres of many eminent composers such as Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, Luciano Berio, Salvatore Sciarrino, Franco Donatoni, Henri Pousseur, and the American composer Joe Harnell.

In 1992 the ISQ organized the 10th World Saxophone Congress in Pesaro (Italy), the birthplace of Rossini, in the city’s historic Rossini Theatre named for the great famous composer. This festival drew an unprecedented 550 soloists and groups from 22 countries around the world, and was awarded the “Kaleidoscope Award” by the commission of the European Community.

Highlights of the ISQ’s international touring include two concerts on the venerable Dumbarton Oaks series in Washington, DC and four on the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles; the Bermuda International Festival; the Alicante Festival (Spain), the Oleg Kagan Musikfest in Munich (Germany, and the Al Bustan Festival in Beirut (Lebanon).

The ISQ has given over 140 concerts in the last four years alone. Their 2019/20 schedule includes important festivals such as Festival delle Nazioni (Italy), the Palaces of St. Petersburg Festival (Russia), the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Chamber Series (Russia), Palaces of Crimea International Music Festival, and performances in concert series in in the USA, Berlin, Vienna, Cairo, Yerevan (Armenia) and many Italian cities.