Famous saxophonist, music historian and teacher David Pituch died on 22 June 2020 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
The American saxophonist was a graduate of Baldwin Wallace University and the University of Colorado Boulder. As a Fulbright scholarship holder, he completed an internship at the Institute of Musicology at the University of Warsaw (1974). Pituch was the first performer of the third, final version of Roman Palester's Concertino for saxophone and orchestra (1978). In 1980, he founded the saxophone class at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, where he lectured until 1989. In 1998 he defended his doctoral dissertation entitled A Reception History of the Saxophone Between 1918 and 1942 at Northwestern University. He is the author of the book Saxophone from A to Z published by PWM Edition (2000). He lectured at Columbia College of Missouri Online Campus.
The saxophonist has performed at many festivals in Europe and the United States, took part in events organized by the Polish Composers' Union, including the "Warsaw Autumn" International Festival of Contemporary Music. As a soloist, he performed with such well-known orchestras as the Boston Symphony, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra and Berlin Radio and Television Orchestra.
The artist's death brought us great sorrow. We honor his memory with gratitude.