Brooklyn-based GRAMMY-nominated saxophonist and composer, Melissa Aldana has garnered international recognition for her visionary work as a bandleader, as well as her meditative and innovative approach to songwriting.
Headlining the Wellington Jazz Festival with her quartet, audiences are in for a night of fluid harmonies and grooving jazz from 12 Stars, Aldana’s 2022 debut album with Blue Note Records.
Coming from a musical family, Aldana took up playing the saxophone at age six, tutored by her father. In 2013, she became the first female instrumentalist and the first South American musician to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, in which her father had been a semi-finalist in 1991.
After going through the personal struggles of a relationship breakup, Aldana planned on keeping busy with performances and travelling. However, when Covid-19 lockdowns hit she put her energy into writing and spent the next 12 months creating 12 Stars.
Don’t miss the opportunity to experience this exceptional, and deeply personal performance by Melissa Aldana at Wellington’s Opera House.
