Eric Lau
Dr. Eric Lau serves as Chair of the Department of Music and Professor of Saxophone at the University of New Mexico where he has taught since 2003. Prior to his appointment as Chair, Dr. Lau served as Associate Chair for the Department of Music and as the College of Fine Arts Liaison to Extended University. An active performer and teacher, Dr. Lau has presented concerts, masterclasses, and clinics throughout the United States, Europe, Puerto Rico, and Brazil. As a concerto soloist, Dr. Lau has been featured at both National and Regional North American Saxophone Alliance Conferences as well as with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra and the Roswell Symphony. His commitment to new music has led to his presenting premiere performances of more than two dozen works for saxophone, including works by David Maslanka, Gunther Schuller, Michael Colgrass, and Ida Gotkovsky.
In addition to his solo performances, Dr. Lau is a regular performer with the New Mexico Philharmonic, the Santa Fe Symphony, the Santa Fe Opera, and as baritone saxophonist with the Iridium Quartet. With Iridium, a saxophone quartet that he co-founded, he can be heard on four professional CDs that including eight world premiere recordings. In addition, Dr. Lau's solo CD Journey, features unique instrumental arrangements of vocal music written between the 17th to the 21st century. Dr. Lau received the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from Michigan State University where he was a recipient of both the Catherine Herrick Cobb Fellowship and the Dean’s Recruitment Fellowship and his Bachelor of Music Degree from Louisiana State University.
