Gideon Tazelaar (1997) is a saxophonist residing in New York where he studies at the Juilliard School. Gideon grew up in the Netherlands and started playing the saxophone when he was seven years old. Within one year he made his national TV debut performing in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. From the age of 11 he started to play professionally and played at the North Sea Jazz Festival almost every year, among others, with his own quartet. At 14 he was admitted to the Bachelor's degree program at the Conservatory of Amsterdam which he finished summa cum laude at the age of 18. Next to being acknowledged as a mature bandleader, he performed throughout many countries in Europe, in Russia and in the U.S.A. as a sideman with Wynton Marsalis, Dr. Lonnie Smith's sextet, the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw, George Coleman, Dick Oatts, Jonathan Kreisberg, Benjamin Herman, John Engels and many others.