Hayden Chisholm

Hayden Chisholm
Chisholm performing in Istanbul in 2010
Background information
Born	(1975-05-27) 27 May 1975 (age 42)
Origin	New Plymouth, N.Z.
Occupation(s)	composer, saxophonist producer
Instruments	saxophone, clarinet, melodica, flute
Years active	1996 – present
Labels	Nonplace, Intuition, Enja, Moontower Foundation
Associated acts	Rebecca Horn, Bernd Friedmann, Nils Wogram
Website	[1]
Notable instruments
clarinet, piano, saxophone, flute

Hayden Chisholm (born 27 May 1975 in Otahuhu, New Zealand) is a New Zealand saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist. His work has touched on a wide range of musical genres but he is best known for his jazz, improvised and contemporary classical music, and his work with the artist Rebecca Horn.

Chisholm was raised in New Plymouth, New Zealand, by parents Heather and Doug Chisholm. His first musical experiences came with local Dixieland bands. He began playing clarinet at age nine before switching to what became his primary instrument, the alto saxophone, two years later. The early influences of Johnny Hodges, Sun Ra, Eric Dolphy were strong, being his first jazz records. He was a member of the award-winning New Plymouth Boys' High School Jazz band and won the prize for Most Outstanding Jazz Musician at the National Jazz Festival in Tauranga, 1991.

With a DAAD scholarship Chisholm attended the Musik Hochschule in Cologne, Germany. He studied saxophone with Frank Gratkowski. In 1997 he received the New Zealand Young Achievers Award which enabled him to continue his studies abroad. During these years he also studied Carnatic music in Chennai and traveled extensively in the Balkans learning the different musical traditions.

During his studies in Cologne Chisholm developed a system of micro-tonal fingerings for saxophone and so called "split-scales" which he presented on his 1996 debut solo CD Circe on Jazzhaus Musik. These scales split perfect intervals using quarter tones. His microtonal work was later featured on the Root70 album Root70 on 52nd 1/4 Street which received the German Critics Award.

During his studies in Cologne he met many musicians he still collaborates with today including Marcus Schmickler, Nils Wogram, John Taylor, Felix Fan, Adrian Brendel, Burnt Friedman, Jochen Rückert, Burnt Friedman, Antonis Anissegos, Jaki Liebezeit, Claudio Bohorquez. He also worked under Mauricio Kagel who was then professor for composition.