BIOGRAPHY

2022 Bio

Olivia Hughart is a jazz saxophonist/woodwind doubler, composer, and advocate, who is now a senior at NYU majoring in Saxophone Performance/Jazz Studies with a minor in public policy/management. She is a gigging and recording musician who plays with bands in New York City, Philadelphia, and beyond. Hughart is a member of the Grace Fox Big Band and the Andrew Neu Big Band. She also gigs regularly with the NYChillHarmonic, New Heights Brass Band and Aberdeen the Band. Hughart recently performed with the world-renowned DIVA Jazz Orchestra. Hughart has also recorded with the Grace Fox Big Band debut recording “Eleven O’ Seven” and a Sherrie Maricle Big Band project in the summer of 2021. Hughart also performs in Off-Broadway productions such as “Get Happy!” and NYU’s Tisch New Theater Production of “Legally Blonde” in 2019. She is busy rehearsing with her quintet and writing original compositions.  Hughart was chosen as a Presser Scholar (which honors a student with a high level of academic and musical accomplishment and embody the qualities of leadership and citizenship) and was also selected as the 2022 Jazz Education Network Mary Jo Papich JEN Co-Founder Women in Jazz Scholarship award winner. She was a feature on the WRTI/NPR Music Live Sessions and was a winner of the 2021 Bruce Montgomery Foundation Springboard Grant. Olivia is a member of the Women in Jazz Organization (WIJO) and a program assistant at Jazz Philadelphia.

Olivia has been studying saxophone for twelve years and started her music studies in Philadelphia at Settlement Music School and in the nationally recognized music programs at Lower Merion High School in Ardmore, Pennsylvania. She has studied with Larry McKenna, Chris Oatts, Andrew Neu, and Tony Miceli in Philadelphia, as well as with Dave Liebman, Billy Drewes, and Alan Ferber in New York City. She currently studies with Dave Pietro, Patricia Brennan, Drew Gress, and Brad Shepik. Hughart has performed at notable venues and festivals such as Birdland Jazz Club, Le Poisson Rouge, Greenroom 42, Culture Lab LIC, Chris’ Jazz Café, SOUTH Jazz Kitchen, The Rochester Jazz Festival, The Pittsfield Jazz Festival, among others.

Olivia is the founder/artistic director of Key of She Jazz (keyofshejazz.org), which is an organization that supports and encourages girls to be involved in jazz starting in middle school. In 2019, as a high school senior, she organized the first-ever Key of She Jazz conference, which was attended by 200 students, educators, and musicians from the Philadelphia area and beyond. Since then, she has continued to organize virtual events that have allowed Key of She to reach global audiences despite the COVID-19 pandemic and having to cancel and reimagine live events.