Embracés - Reverie Rousseau, for saxophone quartet, is a tribute to my friend Eugene Rousseau (1932-2024), colleague, mentor, teacher and artistic collaborator. He is recognized as one of the great saxophonists in the world. His performances, pedagogy and musical citizenship as co-organizer of the World Saxophone Congress are foundational world-wide.

I am fortunate to count Eugene and Norma, his life partner, as close family friends. My husband Jim and I spent many happy hours enjoying their company. A true gentleman with a wicked sense of humor, Eugene would regale us with jokes as the four of us met for dinner and camaraderie.

My composition, Embracés - Reverie Rousseau, draws upon family memories, as told to me by his daughter Lisa Marie. I think of this piece as a water-color portrait of Eugene, made of echoes of Stardust and Reveille. When I asked Lisa Marie for family stories of her dad, she offered me two favorite memories: Hoagy Carmichael’s Stardust, treasured by Eugene and his wife Norma throughout their life together and Reveille. She laughingly offers this story from her childhood:

“(When) Joe and I were in late grade school through middle school dad would wake us up in the morning by coming into each of our bedrooms and playing “Reveille” on his saxophone.”

P.S. Cards and letters from Norma and Eugene are always signed “Embracés, Norma and Gene”. We sign our cards to them “Love, Libby and Jim”.

Libby Larsen, 2025