Mike Anklewicz

At Queen's University, Mike won prizes in composition and saxophone performance, studying composition with Kristi Allik, Norman Sherman and Marjan Mozetich. He studied saxophone with Peter Freeman and clarinet with Gordon Craig.

While at the New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts, studying saxophone with Kenneth Radnofsky, Mike was at the cutting edge in the performance of new music for various ensembles. Mike commissioned Colin Stack's Perpetual Deja Vu for saxophone quartet, and participated in the world premiere performance of Stack's “Several Shades of Reflection”. While at NEC, Mike also studied jazz arranging with composer Ken Schaphorst, and jazz theory with George Russell, and was a teaching assistant with the Music History Department for 3 of his 4 semesters.

Specializing in contemporary saxophone music, Mike continues to commission and perform new music across Ontario. In January of 2004, Mike premiered Matthew Tozer's Fours, Threes and Twos. Mike is currently commissioning a work from award-winning composer Christien Ledroit. Mike also gave the US premiere of Roddy Ellias’s “Whale Spirit Rising” for baritone saxophone and string orchestra in April of 2003. Ellias wrote of Anklewicz’s performance that “it was both technically excellent and … musical.” Ellias also wrote that he was “very impressed … by his imagination and fluidity in improvising”.

Mike has also successfully taught masterclasses with university students at Queen's University and the University of Toronto.

Mike currently is a freelance musician in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, performing on saxophone, clarinet and flute in several groups including the Gregg Brennan Aiseiri Quintet, and KlezFactor, which Mike leads and composes for.

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