Paul Hanson was born in San Francisco, CA, on October 28, 1961.[1] His parents were both musicians: his mother a classical pianist and his father a music teacher in the Berkeley Unified School District. In high school, Hanson performed in the Young People's Symphony Orchestra[2] (YPSO) and participated in a concerto competition curated by the San Francisco Symphony. He won the competition in the woodwinds division, receiving the Pepsi Young Musician Award. At the young age of seventeen, Hanson recorded alto saxophone on the album Pillars[3] by Peter Apfelbaum & the Hieroglyphics Ensemble. Since then, his career has expanded vastly into multiple genres. He has performed with Cirque du Soleil,[4] who had created a role specifically for him in the show ZED.
Hanson has received various awards. The National Endowment of the Arts awarded Hanson with a jazz performance grant in 1995. He was the Robert Mondavi Concerto Competition winner as a student in 1984. With Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, he recorded Outbound,[5] which won a Grammy in 2000. Hanson was the Grand Prize winner of JAZZIZ Magazine's Woodwinds on Fire award in 1995. Hanson has taught numerous master classes worldwide, including Ithaca College, Penn State University, Arizona State University, Oklahoma University, University of Wisconsin, Memphis State University, University of Northeastern Oklahoma, University of Arkansas, and Portland State University-all, specializing in modern performance techniques and improvisation for double reed instruments. Hanson has also taught privately in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Hanson has performed and recorded with the likes of:
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