Nathan Mertens and Kenta Saito, saxophone; Tomoko Kashiwagi, piano 

Nathan Mertens is assistant professor of saxophone at the University of Colorado Boulder, and an active soloist and chamber musician throughout the world. A lecturer at Japan’s Senzoku Gakuen College of Music and First Prize winner at the 2019 Adolphe Sax Competition, Kenta Saito serves as concertmaster of the Blitz Philharmonic wind ensemble in Tokyo. Tomoko Kashiwagi is associate professor of piano and collaborative piano at the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville as well as artistic director of Fayetteville’s Chamber Music on the Mountain. The trio presents a program highlighting contemporary Japanese composers.