About Pete Epstein

Peter Epstein began his career in 1984 in Portland, Oregon. After several years apprenticing with many of the region's top jazz artists, he relocated to Los Angeles, California, to study jazz saxophone and various world music genres at California Institute of the Arts. After receiving a bachelor of fine arts degree from CalArts in 1992, he moved to Brooklyn, New York and has since appeared on more than 50 recordings and toured in 20-plus countries with artists including Brad Shepik, Ralph Alessi, Bobby Previte, James Carney, Joao Paulo, Jim Black, Scott Colley, Ravi Coltrane, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Peter Erskine and many others. Epstein has recorded seven critically acclaimed albums as a leader: Staring At the Sun (MA), The Invisible (MA), Solus (MA), Old School (MA), Lingua Franca (Songlines), Abstract Realism (Origin) and his latest, Polarities (Songlines, 2014). He is a founding member of the School for Improvisational Music in New York City and has taught numerous workshops at universities, conservatories and music festivals around the United States (Eastman School of Music, California Institute of the Arts, New England Conservatory) and the world (Nepal, India, Slovenia, Poland, Sweden, Germany, Portugal, Colombia). He received his master of music degree in saxophone performance from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2004. Currently, Epstein is at the University of Nevada, Reno where he is the director of jazz and improvisational m

Posts by Pete Epstein:

A Checklist For Practicing Technique to Develop Musicality

During my 45 years of playing the saxophone, 25 of which have included teaching at the university level, I’ve developed a teaching philosophy that boils down to two pretty simple things: Help students develop strong fundamental musical skills (instrumental technique that is relaxed, flowing, and confident; rhythmic/metric integrity; fluency in theory and harmony; broad knowledge [read more…]