Julieta Eugenio

Julieta Eugenio is a jazz tenor saxophonist, composer, and bandleader from Argentina. Her tone is big, wide, warm, and inquiring, balancing years of study with inspired improvisational and arrangement skills. After finishing undergraduate studies at Manuel de Falla Conservatory for Jazz Performance, she emigrated to the United States in 2013. She earned a master’s degree from the Aaron Copland School of Music of Queens College, studying formally with Antonio Hart, among others. Her experiences performing alongside fellow students and musicians on the New York scene developed her playing and compositional skills. Eugenio woodshedded with numerous bandleaders including Johnny O’Neal, Eric Reed, and Bertha Hope. As a member of drummer Leon Parker's quartet, she played on his 2021 comeback date The Leo. She leads her own trio with bassist Matt Dwonszyk and drummer Jonathan Barber, and made her leader debut with Jump on Dave Douglas' Greenleaf Music label in 2022. Eugenio was born in the village of Necochea, Argentina outside Buenos Aires in 1990. She began studying piano at age nine at Instituto Orquestal de Necochea. Though she began her tenure there studying piano, at ten she moved over to saxophone because her teacher wanted her to join his big band. In her mid-teens she began playing clarinet and joined a Dixieland band. At 18 she moved to Buenos Aires to further her musical studies. She attended the Lopez Buchardo Nacional Conservatory (IUNA). In 2011 she formed her first trio and joined drummer Eloy Michelini's quintet. She graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Manuel de Falla Conservatory in 2012. Throughout her undergraduate years, Eugenio performed at Buenos Aires jazz clubs and undertook private lessons with notables on the city's jazz scene including Ernesto Jodos, Carlos Lastra, and Enrique Norris. She also studied at the contemporary Escuela de Musica Contemporanea (EMC), and played in a jazz ensemble at the Sindicato Argentino de Musicos led by Pablo Bobrowicky; there she also took classes from saxophonists Ricardo Cavalli, Rodrigo Dominguez, pianist Guillermo Romero, and classical clarinetist Mariano Rey. In 2013, Eugenio was accepted by the Queens College University of New York, to study at its Aaron Copland School of Music, where she pursued a master's degree in jazz performance. Over the next six years, Eugenio played and studied with Michael Mossman, Antonio Hart, David Berkman, Jeb Patton, Tim Armacost, and others. She studied privately with saxophonists Mark Turner and Sam Yahel, and took lessons from Seamus Blake and Grant Stewart. Despite having little free time, Eugenio began hanging out at jazz clubs with classmates and sitting in whenever possible. She got the chance to work with Roy Hargrove, Johnny O'Neal, Tardo Hammer, Philip Harper, and Leon Parker. In 2017, Eugenio, alongside bassist Inbar Paz and pianist Sarah Slonim, performed as SIJ Trio at the international Women in Jazz Competition and won. The group played select club dates in New York before going their separate ways. It was during 2019 and 2020 that she formed her current trio with bassist Matt Dwonszyk and drummer Jonathan Barber. In the summer of 2020, while sidelined from live performance due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Eugenio issued the digital four-track EP, Unaccompanied Saxophone, Vol. 1. Her tenure with Parker paid off the following year when she played on "Mystic Journey" from the single and final track of his first leader date in two decades. The album's star-studded lineup showcased 21 musicians including Cecile McLorin Salvant, Gregoire Maret, Turner, Tom Harrell, and Joshua Redman. In March 2021, Eugenio and her trio entered a Brooklyn studio with engineer Michael Perez-Cisneros to co-produce her debut album. They recorded eight originals and a pair of standards in a single day. The saxophonist signed to Dave Douglas' Greenleaf Music label and released the album as Jump in March 2022.
© Thom Jurek /TiVo