Michael Hernandez

Michael Hernandez has been described as one of the finest soprano saxophone artists of the present generation. He has been heard in concert halls throughout Germany, Switzerland, Poland, France, Holland, Austria, Italy, the UK, Canada, and the United States. Recently He has been featured on WPRB’s Classical Discoveries, Viva 21st Century, WCNY Classic FM’s Fresh Ink, and has been broadcasted several times nationwide on NPR’s Performance Today. Recently Hernandez has appeared with the Brooklyn Symphony, Redwood Symphony, San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Echo Chamber Orchestra, Espressivo Chamber Orchestra, Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, The Phoenix Symphony Guild, The San Jose Wind Symphony, New Century Chamber Orchestra, The Santa Cruz Symphony, The National Music Festival Orchestra, The Hot Springs Music Festival Orchestra, North Valley Symphony, Musica Nova Orchestra, The San Jose State University Wind Ensemble, The San Jose University Orchestra, The Monterey Symphony, and the West Valley Symphony.

Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hernandez has enjoyed collaborating with many well known Bay Area organizations such as Empyrean Ensemble, Keyed Kontraptions, Earplay, Opera Parallele, West Edge Opera, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Composers Inc., MEDIATE Art Group, Center for New Music, Mercury Soul, Hot Air Music Festival, StoreFrontLab and the SF stARTup Fair.

Recent recital highlights include performances at San Francisco War Memorial, BachFest (Leipzig), Center For New Music (CA), Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule (Germany), Ducal Castle (Poland), Bartholomeus Gashuis (Netherlands), SpectrumNYC (NY), Music in the Mansion (CA), the Downtown Chamber Series, Ethos New Music Festival (NY), FeNAM/Festival of New American Music (CA), Trinity Chamber Concerts of Berkley (CA), El Dorado Chamber Concerts (CA), The Artist Series (FL), SoundWired Chicago (IL), Jacksonville’s Friday Musicale (FL), Community Concerts at Second of Baltimore (MD), Roche Family Visiting Artist Series (PA), Fairmont Chamber Music Society (WV), and many others.

As founding soprano saxophonist of the critically acclaimed MANA Quartet, Michael has been invited to hold residencies at dozens of music festivals and universities including Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival, Hot Springs Music Festival, National Music Festival, Music in the Mountains, The Taneycomo Festival Orchestra, The Festival of New American Music, Ethos New Music Festival, and the Oklahoma State Contemporary Music Festival.

Hernandez is an endorsing artist for Key Leaves, Lefreque, and D’Addario Woodwinds. He performs on historical saxophones built to the acoustical specifications of the instrument’s inventor, Adolphe Sax and is the founder and co-owner of MANA Mouthpieces. Michael currently serves on the faculty of San Jose State University and is Principal Saxophonist of the Santa Cruz Symphony.

Michael’s primary teachers include, Wildy Zumwalt, Ronald Caravan, Patrick Meighan and Carina Raschèr. As a student Michael also received extensive coaching from the Raschèr Saxophone Quartet in Germany as well as in the United States.