Sarah Hanahan
alto saxophone
Sarah Hanahan is an up-and-coming jazz saxophonist in New York City. In 2022, Hanahan was featured in the first-ever class of NPR’s Jazz Night in America’s Youngbloods, a series that features “five up-and-coming jazz geniuses who are revolutionizing their genre” under the age of 30. She has worked with many renowned musicians including Jeff “Tain” Watts, Nat Reeves, Peter Martin, Steve Davis, Billy Hart, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jason Moran, Marc Cary, and many others. She plays regularly with her own band in venues around New York City including Smalls Jazz Club, Dizzy’s Club, Smoke Jazz Club, Birdland Jazz Club, and The Django, among others. Recently, she performed at the 2023 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert at the Kennedy Center honoring Sue Mingus with the Mingus Dynasty Band. Hanahan tours both nationwide and internationally with Ulysses Owens Jr. and Generation Y, Sherrie Miracle and the Diva Orchestra, Joe Farnsworth, and the Grammy Award-winning Mingus Big Band. Hanahan’s upcoming album will be released in spring 2024 under the Jazz at Lincoln Center label, Blue Engine, featuring Marc Cary, Nat Reeves, Jeff “Tain” Watts, and special guest Dee Dee Bridgewater. She received her bachelor’s degree in 2019 from the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the Hartt School of Music and her master’s degree in 2022 from The Juilliard School. She has had the privilege of studying with some of the greats of our time including Abraham Burton, Nat Reeves, Steve Davis, Billy Drummond, and Marc Cary.