Sagit Zilberman
Sagit Zilberman
International Jazz Saxophonist/Composer/Recording Artist Sagit Zilberman has toured, recorded and shared the stage with some of the finest musicians in contemporary music. An Alumna of Berklee College of Music, Sagit’s passionate dedication and skillful execution on her instrument has been widely acknowledged, having been the recipient of many coveted awards; among them, Berklee’s prestigious “Sadao Watanabe Award” (2009) which was presented by respected Saxophonist and Berklee Woodwind Department Chair, Bill Pierce, for excellent musicianship.
A native of Israel, Sagit started off in a casual courtship with jazz which quickly blossomed into a full blown betrothal following a season of honorable military service and an extended moment of reflective soul searching needed in order to clarify her purpose. Now girded with a double portion of self-discipline gained as a result of her military activities and a new healthy lifestyle focus as a yoga instructor, Sagit’s professional aspirations are steadily on the rise to the “lofty” (elevated, tall, immense) ideals that her Hebrew name suggests. Perhaps it was the brief hiatus which revved up Sagit’s tenacity in 2005 to embark on such a fast track to musicianship upon her enrollment into the Jerusalem Academy of Music en route to Berklee College of Music while recording and touring internationally.
Sagit who cites Joe Lovano, Greg Osby and fellow Israeli Anat Cohen to be among her musical influences, also attributes her bourgeoning success to her conscious effort of maintaining a well-balanced mind, body and soul through yoga. In fact, Sagit has made it her personal mission to embody the vision of what it looks like to be a healthy, productive and successful musician.
“Yoga helps me a lot in my life to balance the hardships of being a musician and to reconnect with my body and soul. And I plan to teach and help my friends and fellow musicians to maximize their creative potential by doing so.” There is certainly no doubt that this young lady practices what she preaches. When not performing, Sagit enjoys teaching yoga and meditation classes for musicians as part of Berklee College of Music’s Live-Well Program in Boston.
Sagit Zilberman has a progressive list of honors. She was awarded a Tuition Scholarship from Berklee College of Music, holds a Berklee Bachelor of Arts Degree in Performance (2010), and was the recipient of the 2010 Berklee Alumni and Combined Jewish Philanthropies Grants. Sagit has toured internationally with renowned Polish, Israeli, and Brazilian artists, PGR, Helmut Eizel and A Manguigoya. She has ventured the stages of respected venues and festivals such as: Ao-Viva and New Jazz Clubs in Brazil; the BlueNote, Jazz Club Pod Filarami, Galicia Jewish Museum, Smok, Jazzownia Liberina, Jazz w Ruinach Jazz Festival and Wytwornia Jazz Festival in Poland; The Beehive, The Roxbury International Film Festival, Hibernian Hall and Kendall Square Music Festival in Boston; Tutuma Social Club in NY; Shrine and Billie’s Black in Harlem, among others.
Sagit currently leads her own band, Afro-Jew, which explores the African and Jewish traditions and also performs Internationally with a Polish group PGR (Krakow Jazz Fest, Colors Festival in Poland in 2012) and Caixacubo (Jazz a Vienne, Jazz-Act in Paris in 2012). Sagit’s debut album, Simply Love (2007), was arranged and produced by Sagit and released independently under the 1st CD’s Label in Israel featuring prolific artists, Omri Mor, Gilad Abro, and Rea Bar-Ness. Sagit appeared on PGR’s “Enthujzazzm” CD (April 2011) hich Sagit penned an original composition, “Israelites Crossing the Red Sea”, and her personal arrangement of “Stella by Starlight”, a second CD of the group wil be recorded this summer (2012) in Warsaw.
