Quinsin Nachoff

Composer/Saxophonist

New York-based saxophonist/composer Quinsin Nachoff gained early recognition as an award-winning tenor saxophonist, establishing a name as a formidable player “parsing shimmers of Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter and Mark Turner” (DownBeat). He has since carved out a unique career connecting the worlds of jazz and classical music. A consistently impressive output of albums, projects and commissions demonstrate his ability to explore both with equal conviction, whether through his saxophone concerto Winding Tessellations with contemporary chamber group Turning Point Ensemble, his 2018 commission for the Molinari String Quartet, or his remarkable group Flux, which features the stellar talents of David Binney, Matt Mitchell, Kenny Wollesen and Nate Wood. Their JUNO-nominated second release, Path of Totality (Whirlwind Recordings), thrives in the spaces between genres, styles and inspirations, and garnered spots on numerous year-end best-of lists including DownBeat’s The Year’s Top Rated Albums (4.5 stars), which said “Path of Totality is a stunning, deep dive of an album, the sort of music in which one could spend hours submersed.” Nachoff’s 2020 release Pivotal Arc (Whirlwind Recordings) brought together virtuoso violin soloist Nathalie Bonin with a jazz-inflected unit featuring two established giants of the NY scene, bassist Mark Helias and drummer Satoshi Takeishi, and a wind and string ensemble. Nachoff’s most ambitious project yet: a multimedia work collaborating with physicist Dr Stephen Morris, whose area of research is Emergent Patterns in Nature, along with filmmakers Udo Prinsen, Gita Blak, Lee Hutzulak, and Tina de Groot. For this project Nachoff composed a score for a modern chamber orchestra with unique improvisers that bridges the jazz and classical worlds that premiered at Hunter College, NYC in October 2023.