FREE | Saturday, Sept 20, 2025 8:10 p.m. | Forsyth Park

Anat Cohen has been named Clarinetist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association every year since 2007, and she has also been the top clarinetist in both the readers and critics polls in DownBeat every year since 2011.

DownBeat said of her, “One of the most acclaimed clarinetists in jazz, the Israel-born Cohen has also managed to become one of the world’s foremost practitioners of Brazilian music. Indeed, she is now to the clarinet what Stan Getz was to the tenor saxophone in the 1960s: a jazz musician who speaks the language so fluently that she has become a beacon of Brazilian music to the larger jazz world.”

Her recordings with her Tentet and Sexted have earned her multiple GRAMMY Award nominations and her global tours attract sold out crowds.  Also, a natural educator, Anat teaches at the Stanford University Jazz Workshop in California and The New School in Manhattan, among other institutions, and she has been Jazz Artist-in-Residence at Columbia University’s Zuckerman Institute.

A born collaborator, Anat has worked with artists from Latin jazz star Paquito D’Rivera and breakout vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant to arthouse pianist Fred Hersch and the all-star, all-woman band Artemis, among others. In March of 2025 she graced the cover of DownBeat and now she graces the stage at the 2025 Savannah Jazz Festival in collaboration with the 17-piece Savannah Jazz Orchestra.

The best big jazz band in the Lowcountry, the Savannah Jazz Orchestra is co-directed by Dr. Randall Reese and Savannah’s official Jazz Ambassador, Teddy Adams.  Many members of the orchestra are inductees in the Savannah Jazz Hall of Fame.  It was formed in 1986 and it’s performances are organized and supported by Savannah Jazz.