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Quinsin Nachoff

Saxophonist and Composer

About Me

NYC-based saxophonist and composer Quinsin Nachoff has earned a reputation for making “pure, bracing, thought-provoking music” that is “cliché-and convention-free” (Ottawa Citizen). Since moving from his native Toronto to New York City, Nachoff has made a habit of freely crossing borders: his music moves fluidly between the jazz and classical worlds and manages to be soul-stirring at the same time that it is intricately cerebral. His passions reach into both the arts and the sciences, with concepts from physics or astronomy sparking inspiration for exhilarating compositions.

That state of constant unpredictability is vividly captured in both the name and the music of Nachoff’s remarkable group Flux, which features the stellar talents of saxophonist David Binney, keyboardist Matt Mitchell, and drummers Kenny Wollesen and Nate Wood. Their second release, Path of Totality (Whirlwind), thrives in the spaces between genres, styles and inspirations, furthering the innovations of their self-titled debut, which was nominated for a 2017 Juno Award.

Nachoff’s Ethereal Trio, featuring bassist Mark Helias and drummer Dan Weiss, released its own debut album in 2017, and was featured as part of a composition commissioned by the Penderecki String Quartet. Nachoff was already blurring the lines between composition and improvisation on his 2006 debut, Magic Numbers, which paired a jazz rhythm section with a string quartet and was heralded as “one of the most innovative chamber jazz recordings in recent years” by All About Jazz.

As a saxophonist, Nachoff’s playing has been described as “a revelation… [p]arsing shimmers of Sonny Rollins, Wayne Shorter and Mark Turner” (DownBeat). A graduate of the University of Toronto, he was a semifinalist in the renowned Thelonious Monk Jazz Saxophone Competition and has been nominated for numerous Canadian National Jazz Awards. Nachoff has toured nationally and internationally and is active as a sideman with a multitude of creative projects in Canada, the United States and Europe. He leads Flux, the Ethereal Trio, Horizons Ensemble and FoMo quartet as well as the Pyramid Project, which brings together saxophone, brass quintet and drums and features Ralph Alessi, Jonathan Finlayson, John Clark, Ryan Keberle, Marcus Rojas and Jim Black.