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Lena Bloch
Saxophonist, composer, band leader, music educator, based in New York
About Me
Lena Bloch is the only Russian-American female saxophonist and composer based in NYC. She celebrates her heritage in her work by integrating jazz with modern classical, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European musical traditions. Over the past decade, Bloch has concentrated on composing for small ensembles, creating music that balances written composition with improvisational freedom, allowing each performance to unfold as a unique artistic experience. In 2022, Bloch received a Chamber Music America Artistic Projects grant to compose, perform, and record a jazz suite inspired by the poetry of Marina Tsvetaeva, a prominent Russian Silver Age poet. This suite features vocalist Kyoko Kitamura, pianist Jacob Sacks, bassist Ken Filiano, and drummer Michael Sarin. Titled “Marina,” the project is scheduled for release on Fresh Sound Records in November 2025 and represents the first jazz suite in the United States dedicated to Tsvetaeva’s poetry. In 2024, Bloch was awarded a Brooklyn Arts Council grant to premiere “A World Without Fear,” a suite of original compositions exploring themes of peace, resilience, and human connection. The work premiered in Brooklyn venues, engaging audiences with its blend of composed passages and collective improvisation, fostering an intimate and reflective listening experience. Her discography includes European-recorded albums with Steve Reid and John Marshall, as well as critically acclaimed albums on Fresh Sound Records such as “Heart Knows” (2017) and “Rose of Lifta” (2021), both featuring her core quartet Feathery with Russ Lossing, Cameron Brown, Billy Mintz. These albums highlight Bloch’s ability to weave diverse cultural influences and complex improvisational dynamics into cohesive and passionate musical statements. Her compositions have been performed at NY, NJ, VT, MA, MD venues and jazz festivals, such as Washington Women In Jazz, Temple For the Arts Festival, Vermont Jazz Center, UMass Amherst, Puffin Cultural Forum, Brooklyn Public Library. Bloch’s compositional approach emphasizes the seamless integration of structured scores with improvisation, crafting pieces that provide performers with considerable interpretive freedom. Elements such as harmony, rhythm, arrangement, and form may be partially or entirely flexible, inviting musicians to contribute individual and collective variations that shape each performance’s direction. This approach encourages creative dialogue, emotional expression, and storytelling through sound. Her work has received attention in numerous publications and broadcast outlets worldwide, including All About Jazz, Chamber Music Magazine, Jazz Podium (Germany), Morning Star and Jazz Journal (UK), and France Musique. Bloch continues to be an influential figure in contemporary jazz and chamber music, expanding the repertoire through her innovative combination of cultural motifs and improvisational ideals. Her contributions help to foster rich artistic collaborations and cultivate new possibilities for ensemble interaction in small group settings.
