About

Bob Eason

Hailed by Fanfare magazine for his “exceptional feel for elegance, wit… and tonal beauty,” Dr. Bob Eason is a saxophonist and educator. Eason is Assistant Professor of Saxophone at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. Eason has held previous academic appointments on the faculties of Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, TN, Murray State University in Murray, KY, and Ball State University in Muncie, IN.

Eason maintains an active performance schedule throughout the United States, and has performed in Latin America, South America, and Asia as a guest artist at the invitation of international festivals. Recent guest artist residencies include the 2020 Rio Winds Festival (Rio de Janeiro), the 2019 XVIII Encuentro Universitario Internacional de Saxofón México (Mexico City), and the 2018 SaxoBang Festival (Taipei). In December of 2022, Eason performed Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and William Grant Still’s Miss Sally’s Party with the Houston Symphony.

Eason is the soprano saxophonist and a founding member of the Kenari Quartet, an ensemble that has garnered acclaim through engaging performances, festival and educational residencies, and commissioning projects. The Kenari Quartet is the first ensemble of its kind to have appeared on many prestigious concert series including Chamber Music Northwest, the Grand Tetons Music Festival, String Theory at the Hunter, and Chamber Music Tulsa. For their ten-year history of educational outreach work, the Kenari Quartet was named the 2023 recipient of the Ann Divine Educator Award and Arts Residency. In collaboration with the Naxos music label, the Kenari Quartet released the album French Saxophone Quartets, which contains many of the saxophone quartet’s most important compositions.

A native of Houston, TX, Eason founded the Young Saxophonist’s Institute and continues to teach summer camps in the Houston and Dallas/Ft. Worth areas for middle school and high school saxophonists. This year the Young Saxophonist’s Institute celebrates its 14th year in serving Texas middle school and high school students and is proud to have reached more than 750 saxophonists since its beginning in 2007.

Eason completed his Doctor of Music and Master of Music degrees at Indiana University, and he holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Houston. His primary teachers include Otis Murphy, Thomas Walsh, Dan Gelok, Valerie Vidal, Karen Wylie, Chris Patterson, Theron Sharp and Martin Langford.