Allison Au Quartet

Allison Au is a JUNO Award-winning Canadian jazz saxophonist, composer, and arranger based in Toronto, described as "a new jazz ambassador" for Canada. Born to a Chinese father and Jewish mother and raised in the multicultural metropolis of Toronto, Au fell in love with music as a young child. Her passion for composition led to the 2009 formation of the Allison Au Quartet featuring Todd Pentney (piano), Jon Maharaj (bass), and Fabio Ragnelli (drums). In 2022, she joined the Jazz Studies faculty at the University of Toronto as a private instructor. Au's debut album "The Sky Was Pale Blue, then Grey" earned a JUNO nomination in 2013, and her sophomore album "Forest Grove" seized the JUNO for Best Jazz Album of The Year: Group in 2016. In 2019, her ensemble garnered yet another JUNO nomination for Best Jazz Album of the Year: Group for "Wander Wonder." Au was the 2017 winner of the TD Grand Prix de Jazz at Festival International de Jazz de Montréal, the 2017 winner of the Stingray Rising Star Award at Halifax Jazz Festival, and a 2017 finalist for the Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Jazz Artist Award. In 2018, she was featured on SFJAZZ's list of "10 Rising Instrumentalists You Should Know." The quartet was awarded the TD Jazz Fellowship Scholarship (2011), The Alfred and Phyllis Balm Scholarship (2012), and The Margareta and Benno Nigg Scholarship (2013) for three consecutive artist residencies at the Banff Centre.

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