Gear
D'Addario Woodwinds
I am very proud to be a D'Addario Performing Artist, and perform on their reeds exclusively! I also am using a Select Jazz D6M mouthpiece these days and am in love with it.
As someone who really likes to play classical and jazz music equally, it is a huge blessing to finally be able to play a reed that is flexible enough that I can use on my jazz and classical mouthpieces; I have never experienced that before with another reed and it just simplifies things so much for me. I think for me a big consideration as an educator is consistency – will I feel good recommending this product to a high school or middle student, who may not be as discerning, and know that he or she isn’t going to get a box where 6 of the reeds are unplayable? With D'Addario I never have doubts about that; these reeds are unrivaled in both flexibility and quality control.
yamaha
For my 15th birthday my mom and dad bought be a Yamaha YAS-62II, and I have played exclusively Yamaha saxophones since. These days I am playing a Custom EX alto and a YSS-675 soprano. I feel that Yamaha saxophones have incredible quality control in comparison to other professional-tier horns. I don't have to sort through 10 Yamaha horns to find the "good one". I feel totally comfortable playing my horns in any musical context. The price point of Yamaha horns in comparison to other manufacturers is a huge bonus, too. I love Yamaha!