Carrie Koffman

Education

MM, University of North Texas

BM, University of Michigan

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Carrie Koffman is Associate Professor of Saxophone at The Hartt School at the University of Hartford and Lecturer of Saxophone at the Yale School of Music. Prior to this, she held positions as Assistant Professor of Saxophone at Penn State University, Assistant Professor of Saxophone at the University of New Mexico, and Lecturer at Boston University. She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in 26 states, 1 federal district, 14 countries and on 5 continents. Her recording projects include the CD’s Carillon Sky, Dialogues and Dragon Rhyme. One review in Fanfare Magazine calls her playing “suave, subtly nuanced, and technically secure in its every gesture,” while another refers to her “melting tone and touching sensitivity.” She also has an ongoing recording and performing series entitled Pink Ink that is dedicated to promoting the music of living women composers. Committed to new music, commissions and premieres include 52 compositions.

She performs in a contemporary chamber music duo, The Irrelevants, with violist Tim Deighton. Their “excellent playing” of several new works in a New York recital was noted in The Strad. She also recently completed tours of Italy, Cyprus and the United States as tenor saxophonist in the Transcontinental Saxophone Quartet. Additionally, she appears frequently as a soloist, chamber musician, and clinician.

In addition to traditional performance spaces, Koffman enjoys bringing live music to unexpected places. She recently hiked the Camino de Santiago across northern Spain, sharing impromptu performances in 33 different cathedrals and churches along the historic medieval route. In this way, she was able to reach people from all over the world in contemplative spaces while they made their own pilgrimages.

Her saxophone students have placed in over 120 different performance competitions including winning 22 university concerto competitions at all five of the universities where she has taught. Koffman holds a bachelors degree from the University of Michigan and a masters degree from the University of North Texas. Koffman is a certified Kripalu Yoga Teacher and teaches Yoga for Performers. She is also a Conn-Selmer artist/clinician, and performs exclusively on Selmer Paris saxophones.