Alex Churchill
Born and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, Alex started playing the saxophone when he was nine years old. He studied under kiwi saxophonist Brian Smith (Maynard Ferguson Band, Nucleus) and afterwards went on to study Jazz Performance at the New Zealand School of Music, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree with First Class Honors. He also competed at the 2009 New Zealand Youth Jazz Competition, where he was awarded the highest honor at the competition - the trophy for the “Most Outstanding Young Musician”.
After completing his musical studies in 2012, he began exploring other genres of music, most notably RnB, Soul and Smooth/Contemporary Jazz while he was playing saxophones, flute and keyboards for seven years backing vocalist and guitarist extraordinaire Andréa Lisa (Kirk Whalum, Jonathan Butler).
Alex has been performing professionally at various festivals since high school, including the prestigious Monterey Jazz Festival in the USA, the Manly Jazz Festival in Sydney, Australia, The Auckland Arts Festival, and multiple appearances at the New Zealand National Jazz Festival. He has also shared the stage with some of New Zealand’s finest jazz musicians, along with international artists such as Grammy nominated guitarist/vocalist Jonathan Butler, trombonist John Fedchock and trumpeters Allen Vizzutti and Jon Papenbrook. In 2013, while Alex and his band were performing around the South of France, he performed a series of concerts with vocalist and flautist Thijs Van Leer (from the Dutch prog rock group ‘Focus’) with one special performance held inside the mansion of the late painter/sculptor, Pablo Picasso. Alex has also spent a number of years playing in the saxophone sections of New Zealand’s finest big bands, including the Rodger Fox Big Band, the Auckland Jazz Orchestra, and the New Zealand Youth Jazz Orchestra.
GEAR
“The Virtuoso tenor is fantastic. The tone is beautiful, the intonation is perfect and the whole horn is exceptionally well designed and constructed. And best of all, the instrument allows me to say exactly what I want to say night after night without getting in my way, which is what I have always looked for in a saxophone.”