Alexa Tarantino

Alexa Tarantino plays alto saxophone and flute, and she has spent years building a reputation as both a performer and an educator. She has been nominated three times as a rising star in the DownBeat Critics Poll, a recurring signal from the jazz press that her name belongs in the conversation.

She has toured with vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, high-profile work that put her sound in front of large audiences around the world. Tarantino also teaches through programs affiliated with Jazz at Lincoln Center, passing along technique and repertoire to the next wave of students even as she continues building her own catalog as a leader.

Her doubling on flute alongside alto saxophone gives her a wider color palette than many of her peers, and her small-group leadership dates show a player equally comfortable in a supporting chair and out front. Between the touring, the teaching, and her own bands, she occupies a rare position: fully embedded in the scene's present while actively shaping its future.