Biography

Brian Handeland is currently an in-demand saxophonist, woodwind doubler, lesson instructor, and guest clinician/educator living in Minneapolis, MN, Brian has had the opportunity to perform behind a variety of musical acts including The Temptations, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Nino Segarra, Kurt Elling, Gretchen Parlato, Wycliffe Gordon, Curtis Stigers, Bobby Shew, and Maria Schneider. He is equally comfortable playing in a variety of musical styles, including jazz, rock, funk/R&B, blues, classical, folk, New Orleans brass band, Afro-Cuban, and even dabbles in both Irish flute and Klezmer music! He frequently performs with a number of Twin Cities ensembles including the JazzMN Orchestra (Minnesota’s premier concert big band), Riverside All-Stars/Hitmen/Swing (with both their Top 40 wedding/corporate band and their 6-piece swing band), BH4 (jazz quartet in a variety of styles), The Soul Shack (70s & 80s funk/soul/R&B), Jack Brass Band (New Orleans second line), and Fuzzy Math (original jazz/jazz arrangements of 80s/90s pop). Brian has also played in the orchestra pits at many local professional theaters (including the Chanhassen Dinner Theater and the Children’s Theater Company), and he frequently can be found subbing with a wide variety of other ensembles all over the Upper Midwest.

As an educator, Brian teaches private lessons on saxophone, clarinet, and flute at Blue Tree Music Education in South Mpls, and also teaches woodwind lessons online to students around the Twin Cities and beyond! As a member of the oboe/saxophone duo BS Project (w/oboist Susan Miranda), he has toured and performed at schools all around the Midwest and Central US, and as YourClassicalMPR Class Notes artists, they have shared their original musical program entitled “Paul Bunyan & Babe the Blue Ox Find the Blues” at a variety of K-12 schools across MN. Brian also regularly works as a guest instructor at schools around MN and WI, and he has worked as an adjudicator/clinician at multiple jazz festivals across the Upper Midwest including the Eau Claire (WI) Jazz Festival and the Myra Jazz Festival in Grand Forks, ND.

A native of Minneapolis, MN, Brian studied saxophone/woodwinds and jazz at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and the University of North Texas, where he played and recorded with a large variety of ensembles including the DownBeat award winning UW-Eau Claire Jazz Ensemble I, the DownBeat award winning UNT Latin Jazz Ensemble, and the Grammy-nominated UNT 1 O'Clock Lab Band. After attending UNT, Brian was employed as a touring pit orchestra musician for NETworks Presentations, where he played flute/clarinet/saxophones on the 2016 International tour of Shrek the Musical, as well as on North American tours of the musicals Elf and Flashdance. Brian also performed with pianist Lorie Line and her Pop Chamber Orchestra on her 2016 Holiday Tour.