harvey pittel born june 22 1943 is an american saxophonist who performs principally in north america and is currently the professor of saxophone at the university of texas at austin sarah and ernest butler school of music in the college of fine artsfollowing studies as a music education major at the university of southern california usc pittel obtained his masters degree under the tutelage of fred hemke at northwestern university and subsequently studied at the juilliard school with joseph allard he performed a solo recital at carnegie hall in 1973 as a winner of the concert artists guild competition he has edited the saxophone and piano reduction of the ingolf dahl concerto for saxophone and band based on his work with dahl during his studies at the university of southern california his version of the concerto is the standard version of this piece played today and has performed the piece under dahl as well as michael tilson thomas and zubin mehta mr pittel has performed with many major orchestras including the los angeles philharmonic louisville orchestra boston symphony new york philharmonic san antonio symphony and austin symphonypittel has been critically acclaimed in leading newspapers and magazines by both harold c schonberg and raymond ericson in the new york times michael steinberg in the boston globe and winthrop sargeant in the new yorker and his many awards include two martha baird rockefeller fund grants and a national endowment for the arts solo recitalist grantfilm soundtracks on which pittel has collaborated include for woody allens manhattan and he has appeared as a guest on the today show and live from lincoln center works written for harvey pittel include the paul chihara saxophone concerto soprano saxophone sonata and milton babbitts images for saxophone and tapeformer students includedr jeffrey benedict faculty department of music california state university los angelesdr dan goble dean school of visual and performing arts western connecticut state university also plays with the harvey pittel saxophone quartet todd oxford faculty school of music texas state university san marcossteve mohacey dr jack cooper faculty university of memphis school of music vincent gnojek faculty school of music university of kansasroger greenberg retired from university of northern coloradojames rotter retired cal state fullerton usc thornton school of musicrobert medina elision saxophone quartettodd yukomoto university of hawaiijavier oviedo faculty western connecticut state universitypaul haar university of nebraskalincoln rami elfarrah faculty school of music university of texas at san antoniomace hibbard georgia state universityjeremy justeson kutztown university of pennsylvania allen won faculty the mannes college for musicwilliam gravesjames hairstondebra mckim hastings college branford marsalis and kenny garrett are among the most notable jazz saxophonists that have studied with pittel