Benedictine professor releases Baroque saxophone album on Navona Records

A Benedictine College professor has put Atchison on a wider classical-music map with a recording that pairs Baroque repertoire and soprano saxophone in an unusually polished way. Dr. Christopher Greco’s Baroque: For Soprano Saxophone and Piano was released by Navona Records on July 25, 2025, under catalog number NV6745, with Po Sim Head at the piano and Greco on soprano saxophone.

The project matters in Atchison because Greco is not a visiting artist passing through town. He joined Benedictine’s music faculty in 2008 and is part of the campus community with his wife and children. His album gives the college a public-facing example of the kind of professional work that can grow out of a faculty studio, while also giving local students a model of what a music career can look like when teaching, performance and scholarship move together.

Navona described the recording as a blend of Baroque music and the soprano saxophone that bridges “two separate centuries with elegance and virtuosity.” That idea fits the repertoire on the disc, which includes music by Alessandro Marcello, J.S. Bach, Georg Philipp Telemann and François Couperin. The label also points to Greco’s background in clarinet and flute as part of what made him a strong fit for reimagining Baroque lines on a modern saxophone.

The release has already drawn serious critical attention. Greco’s own website says the album received recommended featured reviews in FANFARE Magazine’s Mar/Apr 2026 issue, and a review excerpt praised his tone, breath control, facility and tasteful ornamentation. Take Effect also reviewed the album in February 2026, gave it an 8 out of 10, and called the six selections interpretations that span two centuries with elegance and adeptness.

Greco’s résumé helps explain why the album reads as more than a campus side project. Navona identifies him as an award-winning composer, performer and professor of music who works across classical chamber, concert hall, electronic and jazz-based music. Before Benedictine, he taught at Pepperdine University, UCLA and the University of Maryland. He has also published in Saxophone Journal, Saxophone Today and the Clarinet & Saxophone Society of Great Britain, and his composition Maia won a Hollywood Music in Media Award in 2012.

For Benedictine and Atchison County, the larger story is access. The music department says its instrumental ensembles are meant to serve as a cultural destination for the college and surrounding community, and they have toured internationally and performed multiple times at the Kansas Music Educators Association conference. Greco’s recording shows that the same faculty presence filling those stages is also generating work that can travel far beyond Atchison.