Donna Schwartz
Musician, Educator and Everything Saxophone Podcast Host, Donna Schwartz has helped thousands of people of all ages all over the world boost their performance and improvisation skills to the next level for over 30 years. She has performed with members from Billy Joel's Band, Black Sabbath, Finalists from NBC's The Voice, and has performed in many of the major venues in the NYC and Los Angeles metro areas.
Having always wanted to play the saxophone, Donna received guidance from a fantastic all-around woodwind performer, Alan Mandel during her undergraduate years. She picked up the saxes really quickly and went on to study with renowned Long Island teachers, Lou Doboe and Jeffrey Lange. She learned and still utilizes Joe Allard's method of playing the saxophone, and has helped countless students develop fuller tones and more efficient ways of performing saxophone.
She has since performed Blues and Rock in large theatres, concert halls and festivals across the NYC and Los Angeles metro areas with artists such as Vicci Martinez (Season 1 Finalist from The Voice), Richie Cannata (original saxophonist from Billy Joel's band), Bobby Rondinelli (drummer from Blue Oyster Cult and Black Sabbath), and Barbara Morrison, legendar Jazz vocalist.
Donna has created courses such as Improvisation Made Easy, Jazz Improvisation Explained, Supercharge Your Jazz Improvisation, Boost Your Blues Improvisation, Jazz Patterns 201, Practical Jazz Theory Primer, and many more that thousands of students have enrolled in.
Ways to Work with Donna
Private Lessons and Coaching
Whether you're looking to get weekly guidance or looking for accelerated coaching to get your playing and improvisation to the next level, Donna's 30+ years of experience can give you the results you want!
Performances
Check out Donna's performances with various bands from the NY and LA Metro areas.
Donna's Free Stuff
From improving your tone and posture to choosing the best neck strap, to performing popular pieces of music, Donna's Free Stuff will get you past those pesky problems so you can continue making music you love.
Donna Schwartz Music Academy
Ready to get serious about playing?
Donna Schwartz Music Academy has dozens of courses to help you get to the next level with your tone, learning songs, and improvisation.
Click below to discover which course is best for you.
Client Raves
Not only my teacher, but also my cheerleader!
Donna shared the knowledge she has gained from her vast experience in performance, from her many podcast interviews, and from her own education to guide me toward my goals.
Donna’s step-by-step Improvisation System made it much less intimidating to approach a new tune and made me believe that I could accomplish my goal of being able to play melodically in different styles and over many different chord progressions.
Donna was not only my teacher, she was my cheerleader! Whenever I was feeling a bit low about my playing, she would know just what to say to build my confidence and get me motivated again.
I learned so much about stage presence and the “inner game” of music from Donna, and was able to apply my new knowledge in ways that improved my ability to perform in public successfully.
– Lisa Borg
Best teacher you could ever have
I’ve been taking sax lessons from Donna Schwartz for a while now. I think she is the best teacher possible.
She knows instinctively how to zoom in on what I need to make me a better player.
Previous teachers just kept repeating “long tones” and assigning the next page of the music book each week.
I started playing sax when I was 10 and never had a basic foundation. Donna knew how to take me back to Square one to improve my tone.
In my opinion she is the best teacher you could ever have.
– Nancy Selman
Very professional and accomodating
We had the pleasure of having Donna at our company event, she was very professional and accommodating from the beginning till end.
She is a very talented performer, our guests loved and expressed enjoying her music.
She exceeded our expectation, I would highly recommend her to my friends and colleagues for future events.