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Andrew Kay
SAXOPHONE
ARRANGER, CLARINET-B FLAT, CLARINET-BASS, CLARINET-E FLAT, COMPOSER-COMPOSER, FLUTE-ALTO, FLUTE-PAN, FLUTE-STANDARD, MELODICA, PERCUSSION-INDIAN, SAXOPHONE-ALTO, SAXOPHONE-BARITONE, SAXOPHONE-SOPRANO, SAXOPHONE-TENOR, TAMBURA, TIN WHISTLE
Home Address: Private
Business Address: Private

Professional Name: Andrew Kay
Personal Email: Private
Business Email: connect@andrew-kay.ca
Home Phone: (647)527-5353
Mobile Phone: Private
Work/Management Phone: Private
Biography:

Andrew Kay is a professional saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist from Toronto, Canada. Having started his musical life at a young age, he has trained and been thoroughly schooled on the Soprano, Alto, and Tenor Saxophones, as well as the Flute, Bb and Bass Clarinets, and Piano over the past 30 years. Andrew received his first Jazz training at Humber Community Music School under the guidance of Cathy Mitro, Alex Dean, Pat Wheeler, and Kirk MacDonald. While attending Humber Andrew performed at various music festivals across Canada, including the Halifax Jazz Festival, the Toronto Jazz Festival, and travelled to The Hague, Netherlands to perform at the North Sea Jazz Festival with Kirk MacDonald in 2004. Andrew received his formal education in Contemporary Music / Jazz Performance at the Humber Institute of Advanced Learning, studying saxophone under Mark Promane, Kelly Jefferson, and Pat LaBarbera. Over the past 15 years, Andrew has performed across Canada, the U.S.A., Europe, and India in various different ensembles and groups; performing in a wide range of styles including, Modern & Contemporary Jazz, Indian Classical Music, Experimental, Hip-Hop, Funk/R&B, Eastern European, Indian Fusion and World Music.

Emerging as one of the first Westerners to perform Northern Indian Classical music on the Saxophone, Andrew spent a decade learning under respected vocalist and Guru Pandit Shantanu Bhattacharyya. Andrew performs both vocal and instrumental Raga music on the Alto Saxophone & Singing Bowls. Living and learning in the traditional Guru Shishya Parampara music system in Kolkata for almost 10 years has been a key aspect to Andrew’s Raga and musical development. Performing throughout India, Andrew has taken the stage at prodigious festivals such as: Ballygunge Maitreyee 2015, All Bengal Conference 2013, Salt Lake Music Conference 2012, All India Festival Kolkata 2012, as well as many other feature concerts in Kolkata, New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad.

Andrew has recorded on many albums as a leader and featured guest. Projects co-led by Andrew include:
• Recent albums by Jonathan Kay & Andrew Kay are exploring undiscovered musical realms which unite the spirit of the East with the creativity of the West in a never before realized synthesis of musical expression through the saxophone. They continue John Coltrane’s search for a “multicultural theory of musical transcendence” by exploring the depths of both Indian Raga music and Western Improvisation.
• Monsoon Trio’s debut album Pranaam is a collection of traditional Indian Ragas expressed on western instruments. Accompanied by one of India’s top young maestros, Subhajyoti Guha, Andrew renders Indian Classical music on the Alto saxophone alongside his brother Jonathan Kay (tenor saxophone) and Justin Gray (bass veena). The album has been warmly received and widely regarded as the first of its kind.
• Canadian Indo-Jazz group Monsoon; a collective dedicated to composing and performing an innovative synthesis of music from the East and the West. Monsoon’s Juno nominated album Mandala has been recognized around the globe as a truly innovative and unique approach to world music.
• Experimental jazz group Kayos Theory explores the ideas and concepts of creativity, collective consciousness, artistic expression, spirituality, and Truth, through the medium of sound, vibration, and music. Andrew co-founded and co-directs
• Monsoon-Music is an organization and label which promotes cross-cultural exploration and experimentation.
• Andrew plays an active role on the Board of Raag Mala Toronto working as the lead of the Digital Assets team.

Having great enthusiasm to share his musical experience and knowledge of sound healing, Andrew has been teaching students privately as well as in schools and clinics for the past 15 years. While learning and performing around the globe, Andrew has had the great opportunity to work with some of the world’s finest artists, including: David Liebman, Dave Douglas, Dan Weiss, Daniel Carter, Ingrid Jensen, Kurt Elling, Dave Grusin, Mike Stern, Pat Labarbera, Mike Murley, Bickram Ghosh, Tejendra Majumdar, Dhruba Ghosh, Subhankar Banerjee, Ronu Majumdar and Rashid Khan and Shantanu Bhattacharyya.