Zoe Obadia

Zoe Obadia is a saxophonist, composer, and teacher. She started playing the saxophone at age nine and became immersed in a community of great jazz musicians and educators based in New Jersey, her home state. In high school, she began playing locally with her peers and sitting in with mentors. She participated in the Essentially Ellington and Mingus festivals with the Jazz House Kids Big Band, and was a 2014 Young Arts Jazz Finalist and Downbeat High School Soloist Winner. She also performed at the Pittsfield Jazz Festival as the featured young artist and at the Caramoor Jazz Festival with her own group.

She began her studies at the Juilliard School in 2014 and has since performed in New York City as a leader and a sideperson with Mathis Picard's Sound Orchestra, Sebastian Rios' New Jazz Underground, the Evan Sherman Big Band, Micah Thomas duo, and more, at venues such as Dizzy’s, Smalls, Mezzrow, Birdland, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. She has also had the opportunity to play with Wynton Marsalis, the Mingus Big Band, Christian McBride, Antonio Hart, Dave Stryker, Diane Schuur, Bill Charlap, and others.