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Biography

Kyle Zimmerman is a native Californian, born in Loma Linda. After moving to Whidbey Island, he fell in love with the saxophone while playing with the South Whidbey Middle School Jazz band. In 2010, he moved to Portland, OR and joined the American Music Program Pacific Crest Jazz Orchestra, directed by Grammy winning director Thara Memory. During this time, Kyle opened for the Portland Jazz Festival, performed at the Waterfront Blues Festival, and recorded big band parts on Esperanza Spalding’s Grammy award winning album, Radio Music Society. The American Music Program competed all over America in competitions such as the Essentially Ellington Competition and Festival and gave Kyle the opportunity to perform with Portland musician stars such as Farnell Newton, Andy Stokes, Renato Caranto, and Larhonda Steele.


In 2014, Kyle started his undergraduate studies at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. He initially envisioned himself sticking to his strengths in jazz performance, however the open nature of musical genres at Berklee expanded his love to hip-hop, pop, latin, neosoul, funk, RnB, and more. During his time at Berklee, he was able to study and perform with such greats as Ralph Peterson Jr., George Garzone, Chuck Israels, John Oats (from Hall & Oats), Billy Kilson, Hector Martignon, Victor Wooten, Rick Dimuzio, and Jon Butcher. He also had the opportunity to perform in the 2016 Monsoon Music Festival in Vietnam, perform for the 2017 Boston Celtics Shamrock Gala, record for the 2018 indie film “Wonderful,” and many other studio sessions and performances around Boston.

 

In 2018, Kyle moved to the beautiful city of Los Angeles, California to start his career as a professional musician. He now works as an arranger, private saxophone and clarinet instructor, studio musician, and performer. In August 2018, he went on tour with Vietnamese pop star, My Linh and performed at the ACE Hotel Theatre with Roc Nation artist Victory Boyd.

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