Music students learned from the professionals by performing in a saxophone master class at El Camino College on Thursday, March 6.

Students attending the master class performed for Arcis, a German saxophone quartet currently on tour. The quartet participated in the class as part of the Featured Artist series from the Center for the Arts.

“We’re going to jump right into playing,” David Moyer, assistant professor of music, said after briefly introducing Arcis.

For the next 45 minutes, the quartet performed several songs for an intimate group of about 15 audience members, most of whom were student musicians.

While Arcis is a classically trained saxophone group, they performed a variety of songs, from a rearrangement of Johann Sebastian Bach to blues and collaborations that they had done with composers and musicians from around the world.

“We didn’t expect that 16 years later, we would still play together,” soprano saxophonist Claus Hierluksch said.

Arcis first formed while Hierluksch and his bandmates, Ricarda Fuss, Anna-Marie Schafer and Jure Knez were attending university.

The name of their group comes from the historic Arcis Street in Munich, where the university was located.

After talking about their experiences, starting from a student band to growing as a professional music group, Arcis fielded questions from the audience before going into the student performances.

“It has been a while since I had performed in a setting like this,” said Victoria Blanco, 20, a music major who played the tenor sax. She was one of the two solo student performers at the master class.

The other solo performer was Drew Perea, who also played the tenor sax.

A student jazz sextet was the last performance.

They had one practice session together before they were set to play for the critique from professional musicians.

While they had played on and off together for over a year, this would be only the second time they performed Clifford Brown’s bebop jazz piece “Sandu.”

And one of them just got the memo that the dress code was concert wear.

“I had gotten off a plane at 2 a.m. last night,” said Aidan Jennings, 19, a music major who played alto saxophone. He ended up borrowing an outfit from bandmate Max Hughes, 19, a bassist.

The members of the sextet, which included two other saxophone players, a drummer and a pianist, were one of the three student acts who performed during the class.

After each performance, the quartet members praised the student musicians and gave constructive feedback.

The tips and suggestions ranged from posture and breath control to trying a neck strap that would better hold the saxophone in place.

“I’m trying to find a better neck strap,” Blanco said in response.

That was when Arcis member Anna-Marie Schäfer, who plays tenor saxophone, invited her to try on her own neck strap after the session was over.

“I hope our student performers will take the constructive criticism home and build upon it,” said Moyer.