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Idit Shner

An active performer of both jazz and classical music, Idit has played in various distinguished venues in the United States and abroad, such as The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Lincoln Center in New York.

Currently Shner plays with her jazz quartet in Eugene and Portland, Oregon. Her latest release of jazz originals, 9 Short Stories, garnered a 4 star review in Downbeat Magazine. Her jazz debut, Tuesday’s Blues, features nursery rhymes and ancient melodies from the Jewish liturgy performed in a jazz setting. Tuesday’s Blues got great reviews from JazzTimes, All Music Guide, and Jazz Review. Jazz festival performances include the Diet Coke Woman in Jazz Festival (NY), Bellayre Festival (NY), and New-Trier Jazz Festival (IL).

Idit appears on Music from SEAMUS Vol. 16, a compilation CD of music for instruments and electronic sounds by members of the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States.

As a classical saxophonist Idit has commissioned and recorded new music and performed solo recitals in the US and Israel. MINERVA is her latest classical release. Her third CD, Le Merle Noir, featuring music by Messiaen, Bozza, Partos, and Glass, was released on Origin Classics in August 2013. Her previous classical recording, FISSURES: 20th Century Music for saxophone and Harp with renowned harpist Yumiko Schlaffer, received great acclaim and was played on NPR’s All Things Considered. Idit has collaborated with Fireworks, Beta Collide and Third Angle (new music ensembles), and performed with the Oregon Symphony and the Eugene Symphony. Other appearances include the Northwest Percussion Festival, Electronic Music Midwest, the Oregon Bach Festival, and many North American Saxophone Alliance Conventions. During March 2006 she played in Israel as a featured soloist with a symphonic orchestra, and performed contemporary music at the national convention of the Society for Electro Acoustic Music in the US. Her last solo recital in Israel was broadcasted live on Voice of Music, a national public radio station.

Idit holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Oklahoma City University, a Masters degree in Music Education from University of Central Oklahoma, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from University of North Texas. Idit now teaches at the University of Oregon, as professor of saxophone and jazz studies. She was recently awarded two prestigious teaching awards: The 2015 Thomas F. Herman Award for Excellent in Pedagogy in areas of saxophone technique and chamber music coaching; and the 2016 University of Oregon Faculty Excellence Award.


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23
Interview

Idit Shner: Infinite Possibilities

Read "Idit Shner: Infinite Possibilities" reviewed by Jane Kozhevnikova


Idit Shner, a saxophonist from Israel based in jny: Eugene, Oregon, has a wide range of musical influences in the projects she has recorded. Her albums have been published on OA2 Records and Origin Classical and have something to offer for any listener. Grounded in the jazz traditions, she has kept reinventing herself musically, so that she has always something to say, as an artist. On top of being a brilliant saxophonist, educator, and composer, Shner is a ...

8
Album Review

Idit Shner: Live at the Jazz Station

Read "Live at the Jazz Station" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Alto saxophonist Idit Shner is a professor of saxophone and jazz studies at the University of Oregon. On Live at the Jazz Station, she offers her students (and others) a master class in how to translate academic theory into performance art—and she does it live, without a net, at Portland's Jazz Station. The album's opening track, the Jerome Kern standard “Yesterdays," is more exploratory than illustrative, with Shner's alto guardedly encircling its strong melodic line while pianist ...

383
Album Review

Idit Shner: Tuesday's Blues

Read "Tuesday's Blues" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Dr. Idit Shner is a smart one. Currently instructor of saxophone and Jazz Studies at the University of Oregon, Shner was awarded her doctorate in saxophone performance within jazz studies from North Texas State after studying at the University of Central Oklahoma and Oklahoma City University. Coming from those friendly confines, one might assume Shner the second coming of the Texas Tenor, but one would be wrong.

A native of Israel, Shner performed in the Israeli Air Force Band in ...

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"An Impressive Showing" - the Washington Post "An astonishingly assured debut that heralds the arrival of a major new talent." - Matt Cibula, emusic.com "Shner's solos can twinkle and extend like Coltrane (in "Elisheva Doll") or honk and squawk like (a more reserved) Big Jay McNeely (in "Ha Lachma"). There's a lot to like here, from the masterful arranging of traditional pieces that barely lets on that the pieces have a more restrained history of their own, to the sheer force and skill of the players involved. An excellent outing all around." - Adam Greenberg, AllMusic.com "...we could be seeing the birth of a great new singular jazz talent

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Primary Instrument

Saxophone, alto

Location

Portland

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Heat Wave

OA2 Records
2022

buy

Live at the Jazz...

OA2 Records
2021

buy

9 Short Stories

OA2 Records
2017

buy

Tuesday's Blues

OA2 Records
2009

buy

Henceforth

From: Ngatibatanei / Let Us Unite!
By Idit Shner

Obsidian Horses

From: Heat Wave
By Idit Shner

Departure

From: 9 Short Stories
By Idit Shner

Yellow Moon

From: Tuesday's Blues
By Idit Shner

Yellow Moon

From: Tuesday's Blues
By Idit Shner

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