Alliage is probably the most charming alloy (French: alliage) of four saxophones and piano.

Unique in its instrumentation, the ensemble, which has won two ECHO Klassik awards, makes the illusion of a large orchestra a reality. The melodic and at the same time expressive sounding saxophones meet here with the orchestral fullness of a piano and thus create a new listening experience of the highest quality.

The founder is the Canadian Daniel Gauthier, primarius on the soprano saxophone. He received the first professorship for classical saxophone in Germany in 1997 and has been teaching as a professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne since 2003. With him play some of the best soloists of the classical saxophone at present: Miguel Valles, alto saxophone, Simon Hanrath, tenor saxophone, and Sebastian Pottmeier, baritone saxophone. Korean pianist Jang Eun Bae completes the quintet line-up.

The repertoire focuses on famous masterpieces from all eras in compositionally refined arrangements for saxophone quartet and piano. All arrangements are written for the Alliage Quintett and are created in close collaboration between the ensemble and the respective composer: for example, the Japanese Jun Nagao or the Dutch Wijnand van Klaveren as well as congenial arrangers such as Reiner Schottstädt and Hendrik Schnöke and ensemble member Sebastian Pottmeier write for this extraordinary chamber music instrumentation.

The Alliage Quintet performs in major concert halls in Europe, Asia and North America as well as at renowned festivals such as the Rheingau Music Festival and the Lucerne Festival. In addition to numerous radio and TV recordings, including on ARTE Lounge, the musicians have now released a total of seven CDs with works arranged especially for them. The Alliage Quintet made its SONY CLASSICAL debut in 2008 with a recomposition of Antonio Vivaldi's »Four Seasons« and several arrangements by Johann Sebastian Bach entitled »Masquerade.«

The associated concert tour took the ensemble to venues including the Liederhalle (Stuttgart), the Laeiszhalle (Hamburg), the Glocke (Bremen) and the Essen Philharmonie. In 2011, the quintet embarked on a fairy-tale journey through Russia with Tchaikovsk’s »Nutcracker Suite« and »Scheherazade« by Rimsky-Korsakov. For the CD »Dancing Paris« the musicians worked for the first time with the Gypsy violinist József Lendvay. On the CD »Fantasia«, the quintet, together with clarinettist Sabine Meyer, goes into the world of fairy tales and retells them on their instruments.