Sara Zazo Romero

Sara Zazo was born in Madrid in 1989; she took her first saxophone lesson when she was 7 years old in Conservatorio de Badajoz, Spain, where she finished her superior studies with professor Vicente Contador, in 2010. She completed her formation with Prof. Marie-Bernadette Charrier in Conservatoire Jacques Thibaud in Bordeaux, France.

She completed in 2017 a Master Pédagogie Instrumentale with Prof. Pierre-Stéphane Meugé, in Haute École de Musique de Lausanne (HEMU), Switzerland, where she already completed her Master Interprétation-Concert between 2013 and 2015.

She won the Fritz Gerber Award 2018 and a Second Prize of Kiefer Hablitzel Stiftung 2016, also Fondations Lyra, Fondation Max Jost and Fondation Irène Dénéréaz support her career. Sara has won several national and international competitions.

She collaborates regularly with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Orchestre de Chambre de Genève. She is also invited at Sinfonietta de Lausanne, City Light Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and Verbier Festival. In 2014 she won the saxophone position at the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival and in 2016 and 2018 the saxophone position at Lucerne Festival Academy. She has been part of Lucerne Contemporary Orchestra in 2020 and 2021. 

Thanks to her large orchestra experience, Sara has worked with Maestros such as Simon Rattle, Peter Eötvös, Alan Gilbert, Susanna Mälki, Jonathan Nott, Neemi Järvi, Kazuki Yamada, Christoph Eschenbach.

Sara is a member of the Swiss theater company 2b company, and, with a score written by composer Luca Antignani specifically for her on saxophone, as part of the accompanying musical quartet, she premieres the show Giselle… by François Gremaud with dancer-actress Samantha Van Wissen, with whom she performed multiple times in Switzerland, France and Belgium.

Thanks to her artistic activities, Sara has performed in various concert halls such as ElbPhilharmonie Hamburg, KKL Luzerne, Victoria Hall, Fundación Juan March, Roulette Intermedium New York, LAC Lugano, La Seine Musicale Paris, etc.

In her pedagogical work, she has been invited to give master classes at the PESMD Bordeaux, University of Minnesota School of Music, Conservatorio Profesional de Zamora, Conservatorio Superior de Música de Badajoz and Conservatoire de Birmingham, Melbourne Faculty of Music, among other institutions.

Sara has a very active international concert activity and is a member of several ensembles. Particularly dedicated to contemporary music, she is co-founder of Altera Inde, and her chamber music activities includes duo piano and saxophone Zazo-Moreno, Le Sax Consort (musique de la Renaissance), IBSUD Quartet, ACUTE Sax Trio and Pandora Sax Quartet; and she is part of the platform dedicated to contemporary creation Sinfonietta CONTAINER.

Passionate and committed to the music of her time, she works with composers such as Simon Steen Andersen, Stefano Gervasoni, Georges Aperghis, Heinz Holliger, Olga Neuwirth, Stilianos Dimou, Peter Eötvös, among others, and expands her training by attending Darmstadt Ferienkurse 2016 and 2018.

Sara is, since 2016, full professor of saxophone at Conservatoire de la Broye (Switzerland) and, since September 2023, professor at Conservatoire Jacques Thibaud de Bordeaux (France) at the CPES Programme (Cycle Préparatoire à l’enseignement supérieur) and Assistant Teacher at PESMD Bordeaux with Marie-Bernadette Charrier.

Photo credit : Juanma Zarzo - Orchestre da Chiesa