Annalise Stalls
Annalise Stalls is an imaginative saxophonist hailing from a land of many musical greats, North Carolina. She is fluent in genres covering a vast musical spectrum including jazz, blues, church music, etc.
Stalls was trained in Saxophone Performance at the University of the North Carolina School of the Arts under Taimur Sullivan during her high school years, going on to continue this endeavor at Arizona State University under Dr. Timothy McAllister.
While struggling through an 8-year performance injury, Stalls decided to switch routes and study jazz at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, moving forward to complete a Master of Jazz Studies under Dr. Ira Wiggins at North Carolina Central University in Durham, NC.
Stalls began writing her own musical compositions and arrangements, bringing her joy and recognition in the form of an Award for “Best Arrangement for Large Jazz Ensemble of 2012” from the nationally acclaimed DownBeat Magazine.
Stalls has released two albums of original music: Music for Mounds (2015) and Propensity Parade (2018) with support from the Durham Arts Council, the North Carolina Arts Council, and her loving crowdfund donors.
The album in-progress is a Baroque exploration: Telemann’s Fantasies for solo flute played on the soprano saxophone. It is supposed to be finished already but it will be done when it is done.
Stalls just relocated to Boston and is looking forward to starting a Doctorate of Jazz Composition at the New England Conservatory in Fall 2021!
“Annalise Stalls is a lauded saxophonist, composer, arranger, and founder of the euphonious force that is Zen Poets. Her prodigious playing is matched by an uncanny ability to pen imaginative, fiery, and yet, sweet-sounding jazz. Together with Zen Poets, remarkable originals are buoyed by like-minded and accomplished players with the shared intention of familiarizing ears with the exquisiteness of unanticipated phrases”
“Zen Poets, a fiery jazz ensemble led by stalwart saxophonist Annalise Stalls and featuring a surfeit of the Triangle’s best young performers, imbue a reverent traditionalism with a flair for innovation that situates the group between the boundary-pushing elements of early-sixties Blue Note releases and the more conventional side of Rahsaan Roland Kirk”
Awards & Honors
Emerging Artist Award, Durham Arts Council (2020)
Emerging Artist Award, Durham Arts Council (2018)
First Prize, Fourth Annual Salett Arts Jazz Competition (2014)
Regional Artist Project Grant, Greensboro Arts Council (2014)
Best Large Jazz Ensemble Arrangement, DownBeat Student Award (2012)