Michael Blasky

Michael Blasky is a Los Angeles based saxophone player, composer, and record producer. Originally from Marin County, he found early community in the vibrant youth music scene and educational institutions in the Bay Area at large, performing music as a member of the SFJazz High School All Stars as well as adventuresome peer-led ensembles, before moving south to attend the jazz program at the USC Thornton School of Music. There he deepened his relationship with the intersection of improvised and composed music, as well as established new avenues of his creative practice…studio recording, film scoring, avant-garde sound design, large ensemble writing, and more.

As such, Michael’s professional musical life is quite multi-faceted. As a touring saxophone player he’s performed on stage with artists such as HAIM, Suki Waterhouse, Vagabon, Rostam, and many more. An active member of Los Angeles’s creative music scene, he regularly performs with improvising ensembles as well as collaborates with a wide range of the city’s indie artists as a sideperson, arranger, and producer. In addition to his instrumental work, Michael works extensively in the creation of music for film and TV, operating as a composer, orchestrator, arranger, score & music editor, and copyist.

A longtime Stanford Jazz Workshop attendee (he credits the Workshop as “why he chose to pursue music”) and later counselor, he’s thrilled to join the faculty this summer. His current areas of musical study and interest include: sound and phrasing, working with creative resistance, identifying priorities and “The Why”, horn playing as accompaniment, and novel composing practices. He strongly believes that a life in music is a worthwhile and joyful way to effect positive change in the world.