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Grant Izmirlian
Grant Izmirlian was born in St. Louis, Missouri, the third child of a 1st generation Armenian American pianist and her physician husband. He started out on piano at age 5, and was introduced to jazz during a High School combo lab, playing first clarinet and then Tenor Saxophone. Grant continued to study tenor saxophone under Webster University Jazz Studies chair, Paul Demarinis for 7 years. He continued his jazz education while in school in Madison Wisconsin with Richard Davis and Joan Wildman. After moving to the DC metro area, he studied with Jim Carroll and Butch Warren here in DC. He's been a local fixture on the DC scene since the mid 90's, frequenting jams, first at One Step Down with Lawrence Wheatley and then Columbia Station with Peter Edelman, and every summer, overseas in Finland at the Pori Jazz Festival with Ted Curson. Over the years Grant has enjoyed the good fortune of gigging with such luminaries as Butch Warren, and Webster Young. He has been gigging in the DC metro area extensively with a variety of configurations, always loving the music. He appears appears regularly at Twins Jazz, with a his stellar quintet, featuring Arsen Sumbatian on Trumpet/Flugel Horn, Chris Stiles on piano, Alec Petkoff on bass and Chris Booher on drums.
Gear
Selmer Mark VI series 59,000 Otto Link Metal 7* d'Addario Jazz Select #4 S
Tags
Primary Instrument
Saxophone, tenor
Location
Bethesda
Willing to teach
Intermediate to advanced