Saxophone and Piano Duo
October 18th, 2025
7:30 PM
​
Christ United Methodist Church
​Featuring
Steve Cole, saxophonist
Ora Itkin, pianist


Program
To Be Announced
The second concert will feature an unusual and very interesting program of music by Schnittke, Glazunov, Debussy, Ravel, and Brahms.  Saxophonist Steve Cole is one of the most celebrated players in contemporary jazz.  The Chicago native exploded onto the scene in 1998 with the album Stay Awhile, which scored multiple #1 hits and earned Cole the Oasis Smooth Jazz Award for best new artist.  Pianist Ora Itkin, an active soloist and chamber musician, graduated from the Russian Academy of Music in Moscow.  After emigrating to Israel and graduating from Tel-Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Rubin Academy of Music, her performing career blossomed.

Steve Cole
​Saxophonist Steve Cole is one of the most celebrated players in contemporary jazz. The Chicago native exploded onto the scene in 1998 with the album Stay Awhile, which scored multiple #1 hits and earned Cole the Oasis Smooth Jazz Award for best new artist. 

His sophomore set, Between Us, was released in 2000, and his catchy singles made him an instant radio favorite. Subsequent albums were NY LA (2003), Spin (2005), True (2006), Moonlight (2009), True (2013), Turn It Up (2016), Gratitude (2019), and his newest release Without A Doubt (2023). 

Cole grew up on a diet of bebop blended with pop radio hits, and honed his skills on the diverse 1990s Chicago music scene, where he was called on to play everything from jazz to funk to gospel to rock to R&B and soul. All of those experiences come into play on Cole’s exhilarating new album, Without a Doubt, his first outing with producer and songwriter partner Adam Hawley. The album is full of memorable melodies that could be easily retooled as hits for the likes of the Commodores or Earth, Wind & Fire. In a sense, that brings Cole full circle to some of his earliest musical experiences. 

“That's how I learned to play,” he recalls. “When I was just starting out as a kid, I would turn on pop radio and play along, adding sax solos to songs that didn't have them. I still connect with that music on a fundamental level, and I hope that comes through on every record that I make.” That experience evolved with Cole’s love of pop music paralleled by his study of bebop greats like Cannonball Adderley and, later, the soul jazz of Stanley Turrentine.

In addition to his work as solo artist, Steve has performed/recorded, with Junior Wells, Buddy Guy, Boz Scaggs, Larry Carlton, Jeff Lorber, Jim Peterik, Freddie Cole, Cyrus Chestnut, and KMFDM, and has been a featured soloist with the City of Prague Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Steve is also a founding member of The Sax Pack, a stellar sax trio completed by Kim Waters and Jeff Kashiwa. 
​
When he's not on the road, Dr. Cole teaches music industry entrepreneurship at the University of St. Thomas where he is a clinical professor and teaching fellow.

Ora Itkin
​Pianist Ora Itkin graduated from the Russian Academy of Music in Moscow. After emigrating to Israel and graduating from Tel-Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Rubin Academy of Music, her performing career blossomed. An active soloist and chamber musician, she has performed across the Twin Cities at venues such as the Schubert Club, Minnesota Orchestra Hall, Sundin Hall, Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, Temple Israel, and University of Minnesota. 
        
Ms. Itkin has also performed internationally, in Russia, the Middle East, Europe, as well as Latin
America, and has been broadcast live on MPR, Radio of San Juan, Kol Israel Radio, and Moscow Radio. Recently, Ms. Itkin was a guest performer and clinician at the Second Caribbean Festival of Humanities and the Latin American Composers Forum. 
        
Ms. Itkin is the founder and artistic director of an ongoing series of multidisciplinary music forums entitled Muse Salon, which has been featured at the University of Minnesota’s Campus Club, The Weisman Art Museum, the Schubert Club, and Alliance Francaise. She is also the writer and producer of her original, multimedia series ArtAffects, the first two installments of which are entitled “To be … Goya,” and “Fiddler without a Roof.”  Her experience of living among different cultures and her passion for music, visual art, literature, and philosophy,
encouraged her to bring the idea of ‘salons’ in Enlightenment Europe to fruition in the modern day. 
        
Ms. Itkin serves as a faculty member at the University of St. Thomas, MacPhail Center for Music, and the St. Paul Conservatory of Music. She also maintains a private piano studio and leads a community group for amateur pianists in the Twin Cities. A life-long advocate of interdisciplinary learning, Ms. Itkin treats music, both in her teaching and performing career, as an essential element that connects minds across backgrounds and  generations. She seeks to promote an interconnectedness of music with the arts, humanities, and sciences in everything she does, especially in her multimedia productions and work with students.
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