Biography
Aaron Kaufman-Levine is a Chicago based saxophonist, composer and improviser. His work ranges from long-form improvised music to intricate through-composed music and often somewhere in between. His personal practice explores a multitude of studied and extended saxophone techniques and ideas, investigating how the saxophone can be an extension of the human voice. Aaron’s music is intricately made through new compositional and improvisational forms: new musical languages stemming from systems of numbers, letters, colors, contours and cycles.
Aaron is an active performer in the Chicago-area, and has led his group at the Chicago Jazz Festival, Constellation, Fulton Street Collective, and more. He has also played at Chicago Symphony Hall, Pritzker Pavilion, Andy’s Jazz Club, Chicago Jazz Showcase, Hungry Brain, Oracle Egg (Los Angeles), The LilyPad(Boston), and Jordan Hall (Boston).
He leads the Aaron Kaufman-Levine Quartet, is ½ of improvising saxophone duo Bearduo and ⅕ of the improvising collective BananaAcid and is the music director for pop/rock/experimental band 20/20 Plastic.
An award-winning saxophonist, Aaron has performed with the nationally acclaimed Jazz Band of America and is the recipient of the Kiewit-Wang Mentorship Award from the Jazz Institute of Chicago. He is a recent graduate of New England Conservatory where he graduated with honors as a recipient of the Presidential Scholarship.
As a composer, Aaron has written a catalog of music for Jazz Quartet, Saxophone and Piano Duo, Solo Saxophone, and various chamber ensembles focused on language building and merging improvised and written elements.
Aaron has played with Ken Vandermark, Miguel Zenon, Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, Joe Morris, Michael Formanek and more.
Aaron is passionate about artistic collaboration and bringing new forms of creative expression to the Chicagoland area where he is the co-artistic director of the Music in the Garden,an independent concert series for improvisers, creatives, and experimental artists in Chicago, IL hosted by Elastic Arts Foundation.