about
photo by Berklee College of Music
Ariel Loud is a saxophonist, pianist, composer, producer, arranger and educator born and raised in Seattle, WA. From informally learning to breakdance from members of the Massive Monkees crew to studying ballet through Pacific Northwest Ballet’s DanceChance program, music has always been in their bones.
After growing up in Robert Knatt’s Washington Middle School and Clarence Acox’s Garfield High School jazz bands, Ariel attended the Berklee College of Music on a saxophone scholarship, where they graduated from in May of 2018 with honors, completing a double-major Bachelor of Music with concentrates in Film Scoring and Contemporary Writing & Production. While at Berklee, they studied saxophone with George Garzone, Frank Tiberi, Shannon LeClaire and Dino Govoni.
For the bulk of Ariel’s undergraduate studies, they worked in Berklee’s Core Music Tutoring department, helping fellow students with ear training, jazz harmony, arranging, solfege, traditional harmony, counterpoint and conducting; as well as supervising fellow tutors.
Ariel is currently based in Portland, OR where they teach piano and saxophone lessons independently and with Ethos Music Center, a local nonprofit providing music education to children. They also work as a freelance composer, producer, and engineer.