María Kim Grand

Saxophonist, composer, and educator María Grand was born in Switzerland in 1992, to a Swiss mother and an Argentinian father. Upon her moving to New York in 2011, she quickly became the protégée of legendary musicians such as Billy Harper, and Antoine Roney, as well as NEA Jazz Master Von Freeman; in just a few years, she became one of the few fresh and unique voices on her instrument. María recently completed her first orchestral work; she has composed for saxophone quartet as well as numerous pieces for her ensembles. She has lead her group DiaTribe at venues such as The Jazz Gallery; Seeds; Three Concentric Sections; Shapeshifter Lab; the Cell; in New York, and AMR Jazz Club and The Walden in Switzerland. She released her first opus “TetraWind” in February 2017. In recognition of her emerging talent, she was awarded one of three of the 2017 Jazz Gallery Commission Residencies, along with young masters Adam O’Farrill and Joel Ross; her new work will be premiered in June 2017.

As a sideman, she has toured extensively with MacArthur Awardee Steve Coleman and his small ensemble, the Five Elements, as well as Steve Coleman and the Council of Balance and Steve Coleman and Natal Eclipse. She is a regular member of free funk/avant-garde jazz drummer, composer, poet, producer and professor Doug Hammond’s Quintet and of mridangam artist and scholar Rajna Swaminathan’s RAJAS. She also performs with Grammy Award winner Román Filiú in his groups Ouroboros and Quartería. María can be heard on Steve Coleman’s latest and critically acclaimed album, Synovial Joints.

As an educator, she regularly teaches private students. She has co-led “The Science of Jazz” at Lincoln Center with physicist Stephon Alexander; she has taught and helped teach workshops all over Europe, South America, and the United States, in institutions such as The Logan Center in Chicago, the Conservatory of Bologna in Italy, the Blue Whale in Los Angeles, as well as teaching informal improvisation workshops in Cuba and Colombia.

María has performed alongside musical luminaries Julian Priester, Vijay Iyer, Craig Taborn, Jen Shyu, Dafnis Prieto, Matt Mitchell, Marcus Gilmore, Adam Cruz, Anthony Tidd, Sean Rickman, Arthur Hoyle, Eric Alexander, Miles Okazaki, Damion Reid, among others; she has toured Europe, the United States, and South America, playing in venues and festivals such as the Village Vanguard in New York, La Villette Jazz Festival in Paris, Saafelden Jazz Festival in Austria, the Half Note Club in Athens, Millennium Park in Chicago, Roulette in Brooklyn, the Blue Whale in Los Angeles, the Northsea Jazz Festival (Netherlands), Porgy and Bess (Austria), Bird’s Eyes (CH), IloJazz Festival in Guadeloupe, Millennium Park in Chicago, etc.