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Steve Treseler

Seattle-based saxophonist and teaching artist

About Me

Steve Treseler is a Seattle-based saxophonist, composer, teaching artist, and author who performs and leads creative music workshops across the U.S. DownBeat calls his music “beautifully crafted ensemble pieces—whether free, through-composed, or somewhere in between.” Steve’s voice as an improviser and composer blends distinct, yet confluent elements: straight-ahead jazz, Impressionism, minimalism, drones, alternative rock, American folk, electronic effects, and the avant-garde.

Treseler grew up in the midst of Seattleʼs grunge scene before moving to Boston to pursue his studies on scholarship at New England Conservatory, where he studied with jazz legends Jerry Bergonzi, Bob Brookmeyer, George Garzone, and Steve Lacy, He holds a Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies and Improvised Music from the University of Washington where he worked with avant-garde trumpeter Cuong Vu.

Steve leads his own ensembles and is part of several ongoing collaborative projects. He and renowned trumpeter Ingrid Jensen are co-leaders of the album Invisible Sounds: For Kenny Wheeler on Whirlwind Recordings, which was named one of DownBeat's best albums of 2019 and featured in the New York Times and on NPR's Jazz Night in America. His Snow Line Suite EP will be released in March 2020 on Common Tone Records. Steve also leads the In Motion Quartet and Radiant Fields: an experimental meditation for solo saxophone and electronic effects. Steve is deeply embedded into the Northwest jazz and creative music scene as a member of Tom Varner’s Nonet, Christian Pincock’s Scrambler, Wayne Horvitz’s Washington Composers Orchestra, Jessika Smith’s Big Band, and a Phil Parisot Quartet.

Creative music education is an integral part of Steve’s ongoing work. He is the founder of the Game Symphony Workshop, offering group improvisation workshops for ensembles, and he is on faculty at Seattle Pacific University and Seattle JazzED. His expanding reputation as an educator has also been fueled by his Amazon bestseller Creativity Triggers for Musicians, The Living Jazz Tradition: A Creative Guide to Improvisation and Harmony, and his Creative Music Blog. He has presented clinics at Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory, JEN, WMEA, Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, and California Jazz Conservatory.

Steve has performed with jazz greats Bill Frisell, Dave Douglas, Bob Brookmeyer, Kenny Wheeler, Steve Swallow, Joseph Daley, George Garzone, Jamie Cullum, Geoffrey Keezer, and Mike Stern.

Steve is a Conn-Selmer endorsing artist.