www.quinsin.com
Quinsin Nachoff is a composer and saxophonist whose music blends intricate composition with improvisation, balancing structure and spontaneity. His recent work intertwines music with scientific ideas, film, and visual art as part of an evolving exploration. Based in Brooklyn and originally from Toronto, he creates ambitious works where sound and concept converge.
He directed Patterns from Nature, a film developed in collaboration with physicist Dr. Stephen Morris and four filmmakers—Tina de Groot, Lee Hutzulak, Gita Blak, and Udo Prinsen—each responding visually to a different natural process, from branching and flow to cracks and ripples. The result is a work where music, image, and narrative unfold together with equal weight and presence. The project builds on earlier work with Morris including Winding Tessellations, a saxophone concerto premiered at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, as well as a series of commissioned short films—Bounce (Hutzulak), March Macabre (Blak), and Splatter (Prinsen)—created for Path of Totality, Nachoff’s album nominated for a JUNO Award, Canada’s top music honour.
Nachoff’s work draws on ideas of perception, natural processes, and myth, using them as architecture that shapes the evolving forms of his music. This approach runs through his recordings Flux, Path of Totality, Pivotal Arc, and Stars & Constellations, which have earned multiple JUNO nominations and recognition for their inventive orchestration, ambition, and depth.