Biography
saxophone
Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis is a saxophonist, bandleader, classical soloist, and film and Broadway composer. Over his decades-long career, he has received numerous awards and honors, including three Grammys, Emmy and Tony nominations, and a citation by the National Endowment for the Arts as a Jazz Master.
Mr. Marsalis is a sought-after soloist who performs with many of the world’s finest orchestras. His repertoire includes compositions by Claude Debussy, Alexander Glazunov, Jacques Ibert, Gustav Mahler, Darius Milhaud, Ned Rorem, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and John Williams. As a chamber musician, he has toured with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in March 1994.
Emerging from the global pandemic in January 2022, Mr. Marsalis first returned to the New York Philharmonic to perform John Adams’s Saxophone Concerto, which highlighted his incredible agility and the instrument’s lyrical voice. Mr. Marsalis then launched a tour with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in a program that explored the intersectionality of jazz and classical music. Later that year he performed John Williams’s Escapades in Tanglewood’s celebration of the composer’s 90th birthday.
Mr. Marsalis continues to perform with The Branford Marsalis Quartet, which he formed in 1986. His work on Broadway has garnered a Drama Desk Award and Tony nominations for the acclaimed revivals of Children of a Lesser God, Fences, and A Raisin in the Sun. As a composer for film and television, his credits include original music composed for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and the Emmy-nominated Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre.
(May 2023)
Mr. Marsalis is a sought-after soloist who performs with many of the world’s finest orchestras. His repertoire includes compositions by Claude Debussy, Alexander Glazunov, Jacques Ibert, Gustav Mahler, Darius Milhaud, Ned Rorem, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and John Williams. As a chamber musician, he has toured with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, and City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in March 1994.
Emerging from the global pandemic in January 2022, Mr. Marsalis first returned to the New York Philharmonic to perform John Adams’s Saxophone Concerto, which highlighted his incredible agility and the instrument’s lyrical voice. Mr. Marsalis then launched a tour with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in a program that explored the intersectionality of jazz and classical music. Later that year he performed John Williams’s Escapades in Tanglewood’s celebration of the composer’s 90th birthday.
Mr. Marsalis continues to perform with The Branford Marsalis Quartet, which he formed in 1986. His work on Broadway has garnered a Drama Desk Award and Tony nominations for the acclaimed revivals of Children of a Lesser God, Fences, and A Raisin in the Sun. As a composer for film and television, his credits include original music composed for The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and the Emmy-nominated Tulsa Burning: The 1921 Race Massacre.
(May 2023)
