 | Alex Han |
Instruments:
Alto Saxophone
AMT products used:
AMT LSW - Shure
AMT LS Studio
AMT LS
Alex Han
Saxophonist and composer, Alex Han, is widely regarded as the
"Young Jazz Lion" of his generation. With performances at well
over a dozen internationally recognized Jazz venues, countless
musical awards, and a refreshingly original sound, he is fast
becoming one of the most influential young players to enter the
scene.
Han began his musical journey at the tender age of eight, when
his parents encouraged him to study the alto saxophone. Soon
thereafter, his innate musical ability began to emerge and by age
twelve, he was one of two national recipients of the VSA arts,
Young Soloists Award. Around the same time, he was invited by
Grammy Award Winning saxophonist, Paquito D'Rivera, to "sit-in"
with him at a Jazz at Lincoln Center performance for two nights. A
year later, he was asked to perform at the 2001 Festival
Internacional de Jazz de Lapataia in Punta del Este, Uruguay.
There, the thirteen year old student cut his teeth alongside such
Jazz Masters as Paquito D'Rivera, Joe Lovano, Lewis Nash, Slide
Hampton, Johnny Griffin, Kenny Barron, Jon Faddis, Nicholas
Payton, Dave Valentin, Claudio Roditi and Antonio Sanchez. In
the years to follow, he would go on to perform with such Jazz
luminaries as Marcus Miller, Joey DeFrancesco, George Benson,
James Moody, Rufus Reid, Ken Peplowski, Terry Lyne Carrington,
Brian Lynch, Akira Tana, Gerri Allen, Cachao, Shelly Berg and
Walt Weiskopf.
By age fourteen, Han recorded his self-produced, debut release,
"Fourteen" which received airplay from NPR and European Jazz
stations. That same year, he was a recipient of the 25th Annual
Down Beat Magazine, Student Music Awards. In the ensuing year,
at the age of fifteen, he was selected as a semi-finalist for the
White Foundation World Saxophone Competition (contestants
were up to the age of thirty) held at the 2003 Montreux Jazz
Festival in Switzerland.
By age seventeen, Han won the 17th Annual Yamaha Young
Performing Artists (YYPA) Competition for saxophone which is
designed to provide early career recognition for outstanding young
musicians in the United States. He was also selected for an alto
chair on the 2005 Monterey Jazz Festival Next Generation
Orchestra.
In May 2005, Han was once again a recipient of a Down Beat
Magazine, Student Music Award. By the end of that year, he was
selected for an alto chair on the 2006 Gibson/Baldwin GRAMMY
Jazz Ensemble and a few months later, won a 2006 ASCAP
Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award.
In March 2006, at eighteen, Han signed with Rico Reeds (a
division of J.D'Addario & Co.) as their youngest artist endorsee. A
a month later, he was awarded the Berklee College of Music
Presidential Scholarship.
Han's exciting journey continues at Berklee, where he hopes to
"learn a lot and grow a lot as a musician and a person. I'm really
looking forward to meeting and playing with a lot of exciting
players. I've got so many ideas I'd like to explore with other people
who are as totally committed to becoming the best musician they
can be as I am."