RYAN OLIVER (Saxophone) honed his craft living on Canada’s west coast, and in Amsterdam, Toronto and New York. A graduate of the undergraduate jazz program at Humber College, Oliver completed a master’s degree at Rutgers in Newark, New Jersey in 2009. Now based in Toronto, Oliver’s debut recording, Convergence, was released in 2007. His latest recording, Strive!, features drummer Victor Lewis.

He has received numerous Canada and Ontario Arts Council grants and was nominated for the 2013 Prix de Jazz at the Montreal Jazz Festival. He maintains a weekly residency with Organic, and is a member of The Cookers quintet as well as Tonight at Noon, an octet that plays the music of Charles Mingus.

He is a member of Juno award-winning Aboriginal blues/rock performer Derek Miller’s group, and appears on Miller’s most recent recording that features Stevie Ray Vaughn’s rhythm section Double Trouble and Willie Nelson. The group’s album, Derek Miller and Double Trouble, was nominated for a JUNO award in 2011. Oliver has toured India, Australia, New Zealand, Europe, and North America with the Shuffle Demons.

As an educator, Oliver has been a featured clinician at Malaspina College, Western University, the University of Windsor and high schools throughout North America. As well, Oliver is the Artistic Director for the Toronto’s Harbord St. Jazz Festival, an annual festival that celebrates the pairing of fine dining and jazz.