Hailey Niswanger performas at Mississippi Studios

Multi-instrumentalist and composer, MAE.SUN, also known as Hailey Niswanger, has been deeply connected to music for nearly three decades. Her musical journey began on piano at age 5, then expanded to woodwinds at age 8. Saxophone soon became her biggest obsession, and she won the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz International saxophone competition before graduating high school. Hailey left her hometown of Portland, Oregon, and went on to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, on a full scholarship and received a B.A. in Jazz Performance. After college, Hailey moved to New York City where she continued her professional career and began touring with Esperanza Spalding’s Radio Music Society, joining the The Wolff & Clark Expedition led my pianist Michael Wolff, and drummer Mike Clark, and releasing music and performing as an independent artist. After 7 years in New York, Hailey moved to Los Angeles, CA, where she currently resides. Most recently, Hailey has been touring with the artist Clairo, Headhunters drummer Harvey Mason, and performing with her MAE.SUN project, as well as her duo project with Mia Garcia called OHMA. The duo released their first album Between All Things (2022), and immediately went on an extended tour across North America opening for FKJ. Hailey has also released 3 album under her own name, Confeddie (2009), The Keeper (2012), and PDX Soul (2015), and 2 albums as MAE.SUN, Vol. 1:Inter-be (2017), Vol. 2: Into The Flow (2019). Vol. 3 is set to be released in 2024. Hailey has performed at a number of festivals and venues as a leader including the San Jose Jazz Summer Fest, Portland Jazz Festival, Cathedral Park Jazz Festival, Northampton Jazz Festival, Saratoga Jazz Festival, Red Clay Jazz Festival, Salem Jazz Festival, Beaches International Jazz Festival, Elkhart Jazz Festival, Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival, Tri-C Jazz Festival, The Blue Note Jazz Club, Smalls Jazz Club, National Sawdust, among many others. She has performed on NPR’s tiny desk with Karol G, with Demi Lovato on Saturday Night Live, with Incubus at The Hollywood Bowl, and noise pop duo Sleigh Bells on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and the Late Show with David Letterman. Hailey has been listed among the DownBeat critics poll for rising star on alto and soprano saxophone for the past ten consecutive years. She has been reviewed in The Wall Street Journal, NPR, JazzTimes, Jazziz and Downbeat, and charted on Billboard. Hailey has recorded for many prominent artists, including playing flute on Terri Lyne Carrington's GRAMMY award winning album, The Mosaic Project, as well as on GRAMMY award winning song ‘Black Parade’ by Beyonce.