Lynzii O’Connor
[adrotate banner=”36″]
Las Vegas musician Lynzii O’Connor is the Adjunct Instructor of Saxophone of the College of Southern Nevada, the Woodwinds Paraprofessional for both Clark County School District and Faith Conservatory of the Fine Arts, the Artistic Director of the Las Vegas Youth Saxophone Ensembles, and the Woodwinds Coach for the Las Vegas Youth Orchestras. A Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM), she maintains a private woodwind and piano studio of more than seventy students at Family Music Centers Academy, Nevada’s largest private music teaching institution. O’Connor was previously on faculty at Union College and was a Band Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
O’Connor is the 2018-20 Woodwind Chair of the Nevada Music Teachers Association. As an educator, she frequently serves as an adjudicator and clinician for the Nevada Music Educators Association, Southern Nevada Band Association, and Las Vegas Music Teachers Association. An active member of the North American Saxophone Alliance since 2003, O’Connor has given master classes, lectured on “The Music of Benjamin Boone,” and performed in various solo and chamber settings at several regional and biennial conferences. She was invited to present and participate in a panel discussion on “Practically Perfect Practicing” for the 2017 Nevada Music Teachers Association Conference. In December 2016, O’Connor was featured in The Instrumentalist Magazine.
O’Connor is an active solo artist, as well as soprano saxophonist of the Red Rock Saxophone Quartet and principal clarinetist of the Nevada Chamber Orchestra. She has been a saxophonist with the Henderson Symphony Orchestra and has played in musical productions on the Las Vegas Strip including Jesus Christ Superstar at the Tropicana and Guys and Dolls at the Westgate. O’Connor recently collaborated with the h2 quartet on Heitor Villa-Lobos’ “Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5” for solo saxophone and saxophone quartet, as well as the Capitol Quartet on Joel Love’s “Three Images” for saxophone octet. She performed Marcello’s “Concerto” for oboe [or soprano saxophone] with the Southern Nevada Symphony Orchestra, Russell Peterson’s “…Who Needs Enemies?” for saxophone quartet and wind orchestra at The Smith Center for the Performing Arts, the North American premiere of Jun Nagao’s “Die Heldenzeit” for alto saxophone and wind orchestra with the Desert Winds, and Henri Tomasi’s “Ballade” for alto saxophone with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Symphony Orchestra as a Graduate Solo Competition Winner. An advocate for new music, O’Connor will premiere new works by Kincaid Rabb and Yong Zhen Ren in 2020 and has previously premiered solo and chamber works by Krista Abrahamson, Daniel Dorff, Garrett Hope, and David Von Kampen.
O’Connor is a Doctor of Musical Arts in Saxophone Performance candidate at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (ABD, expected graduation May 2020). She received a Master of Music in Saxophone Performance magna cum laude from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a Bachelor of Music in Saxophone Performance cum laude from Michigan State University. O’Connor’s primary teachers include Phillip Barham, Paul Haar, Joseph Lulloff, and Diego Rivera; she has also performed in solo master classes for Claude Delangle, Jean-Yves Fourmeau, Ellis Marsalis, Bennie Wallace, and Walt Weiskopf. Her professional memberships include the American Federation of Musicians, College Music Society, Music Teachers National Association, North American Saxophone Alliance, and Sigma Alpha Iota. O’Connor is the President of the Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity Las Vegas Alumnae Chapter and founding director of both the Las Vegas Saxophone Day and Las Vegas Clarinet Day.
O’Connor is a Vandoren Artist-Clinician and performs exclusively on Vandoren and Yamaha products. She is also an endorsing artist for Meridian Winds’ Center Brace Resonance Weights and Ergonomic Heavy Mass Saxophone Neck Screws.
