Josiah Boornazian

Josiah Boornazian is currently the Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Utah. Dr. Boornazian is an award-winning saxophonist, composer, educator, electronic musician, and scholar of music most recently active in Utah, Texas, Idaho, Miami, New York City, Washington state, Europe, and California. As a performing and recording artist, Dr. Boornazian has been cultivating an innovative, technology-based jazz performance practice for several years, which began with his adoption of digital effects pedals for live concerts. He has continued to develop his musical approach to include the use of software-based synthesizers and improvised digital accompaniment using Ableton, the popular digital audio workstation.  

In his career as a jazz and electronic artist, Dr. Boornazian has performed with stylistically diverse musicians including Mark Farina, Dave Liebman, Dave Holland, Nick Smart, Diane Schuur, Dave Grusin, Arturo Sandoval, John Faddis, Jimmy Heath, Ignacio Berroa, John Beasley, the New York Voices, Dafnis Prieto,  Steve Miller, Jimmie Vaughan, Mike Flanigin, Brianna Thomas, Will Downing, Tom Scott, Cyrille Aimee, Sal Lozano, Marcus Strickland, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Drew Gress, David Binney, Wayne Krantz, Ari Hoenig, Donny McCaslin, Will Vinson, Ben Wendel, Fima Ephron, Jonathan Crayford, Obed Calvaire, Ferenc Nemeth, Alan Ferber, Matt Brewer, John Daversa, Kenny Wollesen, the Gil Evans Orchestra, Dan Weiss, John Escreet, Jacob Sacks, Lew Soloff, Massimo Biolcati, the South Florida Jazz Orchestra, and Shelly Berg, among others. As a recording artist known for enhancing his saxophone with electronic effects, Dr. Boornazian is featured on multiple studio and live albums as a leader, sideman, and collaborator. Releases as a leader include Intersection, Live at Frost, Live at the UTRGV PAC, and ÌKAN ÌPÀKÓ Live, which feature his original modern jazz compositions and improvisations. He is also showcased as a composer and improviser on the collaborative studio recordings Simply Begin Again and A Dark and Stormy Day (Fresh Sound New Talent Records), which feature a quartet Dr. Boornazian co-leads with New York-based Italian pianist-composer Dr. Alessandro Fadini. Dr. Boornazian and Dr. Fadini also have a duo project and have released the album Conversazioni on Elegant Noise Records.

As a scholar of music, Dr. Boornazian’s peer-reviewed publications include articles in Jazz Perspectives, Jazz Education in Research and Practice, TheInternational Association of Schools of Jazz Journal of Applied Research, and The Saxophone Symposium. He has also published more than fifty articles for the popular jazz education website LearnJazzStandards.com. Dr. Boornazian was invited to perform and/or give research presentations and clinics at the 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025 Jazz Education Network Conferences; the 2022 Texas Music Educators Association Conference; and the 2023 and 2024 Utah Music Educators Association Conferences. He also presented at the 2023 and 2024 International Association of Schools of Jazz (IASJ) General Conferences, the 2023 IASJ Aesthetics in Jazz in the 21st Century Conference, and the 2024 International Network for Artistic Research in JazzConference. Dr. Boornazian was also awarded a Björn Bärnheim Research Fellowship at the Hogan Jazz Archive housed at Tulane University during the 2017–2018 academic year.

Before joining the faculty at the University of Utah, Dr. Boornazian taught applied saxophone and jazz studies at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley; music technology at Broward College; jazz appreciation and music appreciation at the City College of New York; and applied saxophone, jazz performance, and musicology at the University of Miami Frost School of Music. He holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Miami Frost School of Music, a Master of Arts degree from the City College of New York, and a Bachelor of Music degree from California State University, Northridge.  

Dr. Boornazian makes his home near Utah’s majestic and inspiring Wasatch Mountains where—in addition to teaching, performing, composing, and engaging in research—he enjoys painting, hiking, skiing, bicycling, volunteering, serving at church, and communing with nature. For additional information, please visit www.josiahboornazian.com. 

Awards

Member of the GRAMMY-Winning John Daversa Progressive Big Band