TINEKE POSTMA

Saxophonist and composer Tineke Postma moves through the international jazz landscape with a voice that is at once lyrical, searching, and deeply personal.

Named Rising Star for Soprano Saxophone in the 2019 Downbeat Critics Poll, she has been touring the world as a leader and collaborator since 2003, releasing eight critically acclaimed albums while also being an essential voice in countless projects as a featured side woman. Her ninth recording—featuring vocalist Theo Bleckmann—arrives November 14, 2025.

At the heart of her work is the Tineke Postma Group, a collective spirit forged with longtime collaborators David Dorůžka (guitar, Prague), Robert Landfermann (bass, Cologne), and Tristan Renfrow (drums, Amsterdam). Their sound is a living conversation—lyricism intertwined with daring improvisation, grounded in trust and the freedom to listen deeply.

Postma's artistry has resonated widely: she has appeared on two Grammy Award–winning albums (Terri Lyne Carrington's The Mosaic Project and Dianne Reeves' Beautiful) and has been honored with distinctions such as the European Musician of the Year (Académie du Jazz, 2020), the Buma Boy Edgar Award (2015), the Edison Award (2011), and the Jazz Juan Revelations Award (2009).

Over the years, she has been invited into the musical universes of Kenny Barron, Esperanza Spalding, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Dianne Reeves, Geri Allen, Terri Lyne Carrington, the WDR Big Band, and the Metropole Orchestra, among many others. In 2012 she joined the Global All-Star Concert at the United Nations for International Jazz Day, and in 2018 performed alongside Herbie Hancock in Melbourne and at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C.

In 2023, at the invitation of Esperanza Spalding, Postma stepped into the role of Wayne Shorter in performances of his symphonic works—Gaia, Orbits, and selections from Iphigenia—sharing the stage with Shorter's close collaborators Danilo Pérez and John Patitucci. This invitation came at Shorter's personal recommendation, a gesture Postma regards as one of the deepest honors of her career.

Her voice as a composer is equally vital. Postma has received commissions from the Bimhuis (Composition Assignment 2020), the Metropole Orchestra (Jubilee Album), and Loft Köln, weaving her melodic sensibility into fresh forms.

Educated at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and the Manhattan School of Music, she lived in New York from 2009–2013, absorbing the city's energy while expanding her artistic reach. Now based in the Netherlands, she continues to tour internationally and to nurture the next generation of musicians as a professor at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, the Conservatory of Amsterdam, and as a guest teacher at institutions including the Jazzcampus of the Musik Akademie Basel.

For Postma, music is not just performance—it is communion, a way of reaching toward the unknown while staying rooted in human connection.