About

Maeve Sullivan is an expressive saxophonist and multi-woodwind specialist with a wide range of musical experiences and influences, mainly focused in jazz and improvised music. From the first year of learning the saxophone as a child, music became the primary medium through which she carried her creativity and emotions. From her roots in York, Pennsylvania, her drive to seek the beauty of music has taken her across Philadelphia, New York City, Los Angeles, Barcelona, Freiburg, Paris, and others.

Maeve studied at West Chester University, where she earned a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Performance under the guidance of Jonathan Ragonese. During her time there, she performed in the Criterions and gained experiences playing with Nicholas Payton, Dick Oatts, Alex LoRe, and Bob Mintzer — four musicians who had a major impact on her sound. Her studies there inspired an investigation into the “universal language” of music, cumulating there in a personal thesis on the connection between music, storytelling, and improvisation. This thesis would serve as the genesis for her recital, “Stories,” performed by her ensemble Storytellers.

Today, Maeve is active as a tenor saxophonist of The Spartan Alumni Jazz Band (formerly/affectionately “Joe’s Big Loud Band”), and as the bass clarinetist of Kitchen Sink, as well as a freelancing improviser throughout Pennsylvania. She also teaches piano and woodwinds and Valotta Studios in Exton, where she teaches a linguistics-influenced model of music pedagogy to her students to fully develop aural and improvisatory skills.