MUSICIAN

Yaniv Nachum’s musical journey began between the landscape of the Sea of Galilee and the energy of Tel Aviv’s music scene. Before moving to Amsterdam in 1999, he was the tenor saxophonist with the Tel Aviv Big Band, playing in projects with Slide Hampton and Mike Stern. The saxophone brought him into a life of rehearsals, shared stages and close listening—experiences that would gradually extend into composing and leading ensembles of his own.

 

Amsterdam became his home and a place to develop that work. While studying at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, his work with Ferdinand Povel and Rob Madna helped him develop a personal voice as an improviser. Conservatory projects with visiting artists including Chris Potter, Willie Jones III, David Berkman and Mike Mainieri brought further encounters with different musical languages. He formed a quartet and began a longstanding collaboration with pianist Franz von Chossy. Writing for musicians he knew, then taking the music on the road, gave his compositions a life beyond the page. His interests reached beyond jazz to classical music, architecture, art and literature, alongside a growing curiosity about the traditions and everyday life of the places he visited.

 

A subsequent period of study at Manhattan School of Music brought him to New York. There, an evening at the Jazz Gallery became a lasting point of reference. Hearing saxophonist Dave Liebman, one of his teachers, perform a composition dedicated to September 11, Nachum was struck by how much feeling could reside in tone and resonance. The experience helped inspire Tribulations and Resurgence, written during his time in the city.

 

These pieces became part of the repertoire documented on Fragments of Before. Bringing together music written in Amsterdam and New York, the album holds a chapter of that journey: the development of a quartet, the impressions of life in another city, and a young composer finding ways to give those experiences musical form. It was named Best Modern Jazz Album of 2004 by All About Jazz.

 

An invitation to conduct the Amsterdam Jazz Orchestra opened another direction. Initially joining on a temporary basis, Nachum found a lasting passion in the possibilities of the large ensemble. Under his musical direction, the orchestra moved towards original compositions and arrangements rooted in the Amsterdam scene. The work brought him closer to the individual voices within the ensemble, while offering a broader setting for his own writing. Finding the Way and Insinuations document this development; compositions such as Lawine and Clockwise, the latter featuring Erik Vloeimans, grew from the same period of exploration.

 

His orchestral work extended to the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, where he became a regular substitute, and to projects with the Metropole Orkest under Jules Buckley. His compositions and arrangements were also performed by the Bulgarian Radio Big Band, Holland Big Band and other orchestras across Europe. Moving between the saxophone section and the conductor’s position gave him different perspectives on ensemble music: contributing a single voice, listening across the whole, and writing with both experiences in mind. Beyond the concert stage, he also led the Flogiston Orchestra for VPRO’s Nationale Wetenschapsquiz, presented by the Dutch writer, visual artist and television maker Wim T. Schippers.

 

Alongside this work, smaller groups remained a space for sustained musical relationships. With guitarist Marzio Scholten, he recorded World of Thought and Voids, Echoes and Whispers and toured internationally. Encounters with flamenco, Asturian, Turkish, Bulgarian, Jewish and other musical traditions have continued to broaden his experience of rhythm, melody and expression. Travel is part of this curiosity, through the music itself and through the art, food and daily life surrounding it.

 

Teaching has become another setting for musical exchange. At the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, Nachum has prepared and led ensembles in projects with artists including Ben Wendel, Immanuel Wilkins, Theo Bleckmann, Will Vinson and others. Working with students and visiting musicians brings different generations and musical perspectives into the same room, connecting his life as an educator with his practice as a performer and ensemble leader.

 

Teaching alongside saxophonist and educator Dick Oatts at the Summer Jazz Workshop has held a particularly meaningful place in that experience. One of his own mentors became a colleague, while remaining a source of inspiration. Years of playing and teaching side by side gave the relationship a new depth, as lessons once received became part of the music and experience they shared with another generation.

 

Throughout these activities, the saxophone remains his point of return. His approach to improvisation rests on a close understanding of musical context, allowing him to move freely within it and beyond its expected boundaries. The relationship between structure and freedom also informs his work as a composer and conductor. Across the settings in which he works, his concern remains personal and immediate: what a sound can carry, how a composition can hold an experience, and what musicians can discover together.