Allison Au

Alto Sax icon Alto Sax

Toronto, Ontario, Canada Birthplace

www.allisonau.com Website

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About

Allison Au is a Toronto-based saxophonist, composer, and arranger, renowned for her unique fusion of jazz, classical, Latin, pop, and R&B influences. In 2009, shortly after graduating from Humber College, she launched the Allison Au Quartet. The quartet's debut album, titled "The Sky Was Pale Blue, then Grey," received a nomination for the Juno Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album in 2013. Building on their success, their subsequent album went on to win the Juno Award for Best Group Jazz Album in 2016. Au remains an active performer, touring and recording with her own groups as well as collaborating with other notable musicians. In 2022, she participated in the Ostara Project, a collective initiative among Canadian women in jazz. The project resulted in an album that received a Juno nomination and a tour across Canada during the summer of 2023.

Trivia

The Allison Au Quartet has won the 2017 Montreal Jazz Festival TD Grand Prix de Jazz. Following her second album, Allison Au began taking piano lessons with Frank Falco which inspired many of the ideas on her third album. Allison Au's last name is pronounced "ow."

Early Life

Allison Au was born in Toronto, Ontario in the mid-1980s to a Chinese father and Jewish mother. Although her parents were not musicians, they had an extensive record collection that Au enjoyed exploring, particularly recordings from Ella Fitzgerald and Nat King Cole. She began playing the piano at age 6 and attended the Claude Watson School for the Arts. In 6th grade she began studying the clarinet and switched to the alto saxophone the following year. Au studied music at Humber College in Toronto graduating in 2009. Soon after, she formed the Allison Au quartet.