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Nerya Zidon

Nerya Zidon (a.k.a NERY) is a saxophonist, composer, music producer and audio engineer born in 1993 in Jerusalem (Israel). Zidon has performed in esteemed venues including the Red Sea Jazz Festival, Jerusalem Jazz Festival, Toronto Jazz Festival and New York’s Lincoln Center. He shared the stage with music legends Billy Cobham, John Patitucci, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Tigran Hamasyan, Shankar Mahadevan and Ustad Zakir Hussain to name a few.

Zidon’s musical journey began at the age of 5, playing the piano and later the violin. 7 years later he picked up the saxophone, and was admitted into the very selective Jerusalem Academy of Music & Dance High School in Jerusalem. During the years 2005-2008, Zidon has performed in festivals and concert halls all over Israel, as a key member of the Jerusalem Saxophone Quartet and the Jerusalem Saxophone Orchestra, directed by Professor Gersh Geller. In 2008 Zidon has received an excellency scholarship from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation, and shifted his studies from classical music to jazz, studying under Jerusalem iconic jazz educator Boris Gammer. Three years later he was selected to work and perform with renowned Israeli saxophonist Eli Degibri (Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, Al Foster) in a band which consisted of some of Israel’s most promising young Jazz musicians.

In 2013, while completing his 3-year mandatory military service as a lead saxophonist and warehouse manager of the Israeli Defense Forces Orchestra, Zidon was admitted into the exclusive Rimon Jazz Institute program at Rimon School of Jazz & Contemporary Music. In 2015 Zidon has won 2nd place at the annual Haggai Eitan Jazz Competition, and later that year went on to receive a full scholarship towards his studies at Berklee College of Music in Boston (MA).

In 2018, Zidon has graduated in honors from the Music Production & Engineering department at Berklee, and received a full scholarship to attend the world renowned Berklee Global Jazz Institute masters program, from which he graduated in honors after studying under jazz legends Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, Terri Lyne Carrington, Joe Lovano, George Garzone, Dave Liebman and Ben Street to name a few.

Zidon is currently based in Boston (MA) and has been working extensively as a saxophonist as well as a composing, producing, recording and mixing music for clients around the world, in a variety of musical genres.

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Opus 1

Yotam Ishay
2020

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