Rhonda Taylor is a saxophonist dedicated to the creation of meaningful sonic art of our time. Early in her career, she was focused on generating new music for the saxophone through the process of seeking out and collaborating with unique modern composers. She has commissioned, premiered, and/or recorded music by Chris Arrell, Rick Burkhardt, Ben Leeds Carson, Michael Colgrass, Nathan Davis, Ben Grosser, Jeffrey Mumford, Bernard Rands, Justin Rubin, Avi Tchamni, and more. Other activities include lecture recitals on Gérard Grisey’s Anubis et Nout at institutions in the U.S. and abroad, and performances at new and experimental music festivals throughout the United States. Currently she is working with Guggenheim Award winner Steven Takasugi on a new work for saxophonist and electronics.
In recent years, Taylor has chosen to develop her own creative voice through the art of free improvisation. Her improvisatory work is focused primarily on exploring the parameters of sound and perception. Her work is concerned with varying states of activity and intelligibility, of evoking a particular experience for the listener using both traditional and extended techniques on the saxophone. Although she often performs solo, she has also had the pleasure of improvising with such diverse artists as Jaap Blonk, Kyle Motl, Chris Icasiano, Tara Khozein, Tatsuya Nakatani, Ron Stabinsky, Assif Tsahar, Mark Weaver, and Neil Welch. Her solo albums (Audition, Interstice, Nocturne, Necropolis, and NTH Volumes One, Two, and Three) are available on Bandcamp and most other online music distributors. Newly released collaborative recordings City of Rocks (with Tatsuya Nakatani, percussion) and Sepulchers (with Kyle Motl, bass), can also be found on Bandcamp.
Dr. Taylor has served on faculty at New Mexico State University since 2003, where she is the College Associate Professor of Saxophone and Music Theory. She completed her D.M.A. at the University of Arizona, where studied with Kelland Thomas. She earned her M.M. as a graduate assistant of John Sampen at Bowling Green State University. Her additional studies include performances in master classes held by Fred Hemke and Eugene Rousseau, as well as attending Domaine Forget Music Academie to study with Jean-Marie Londeix and Jean-François Guay. In 2002, she was awarded a scholarship to the International Clarinet and Saxophone Connection held at New England Conservatory, where she studied with Arno Bornkamp, Jean-Michel Goury, and Kenneth Radnofsky. Rhonda Taylor is a Conn-Selmer artist and plays on Selmer Paris saxophones exclusively.
"The extended, high-pitched tones of Rhonda Taylor’s saxophone are like hands clasping upward at the sky. Swerving and heat-drunk, she manages to imply the presence of a vast landscape through a vertical wisp of sound – not by filling the space, but by capturing the sense of being stranded in emptiness."
—Jack Chuter for Attn: Magazine UK (2020: City of Rocks with Tatsuya Nakatani)"Burkhardt's Audition was performed by saxophonist Rhonda Taylor, at whose suggestion the piece was composed at the time of the 1999 World Trade Organization's Ministerial Conference in Seattle; Audition highlighted the protests and confrontations that marked that WTO gathering. Taylor's virtuosic musicianship and her ability to make the saxophone achieve musical sounds way beyond its traditional ken revealed police officers' arrests of protesters as actions designed both to limit innovative solutions to complex global problems and to confine and restrict creativity."
—Jean Ballard Terepka for TheaterScene (2014: NYC ElectroAcoustic Music Festival)"There were many fine performances throughout the weekend, but some really exceptional musicianship stood out in the performances of the PRISM Quartet and Rhonda Taylor...Rhonda Taylor also blew the audience away, performing SPP by Philippe Leroux with flawless technique and incredible control."
—Allison Dromgold for the North American Saxophone Alliance (2011: Region 2 Conference)