Page "Mindi Abair" Paragraph 7

Mindi Abair was born in St. Petersburg, Florida and spent much of her early life on the road with her father ’ s band, The Entertainers.

She came from musical roots.

Her father, Lance Abair, played saxophone and keyboards, and her grandmother Virginia Rice was an opera singer, piano and vocal instructor.

She started playing the piano at age five, and started playing alto saxophone at the age of 8 when her elementary school band instructor laid out instruments on the first day of band class and instructed each student to pick the instrument they most wanted to play.

She acted as drum major of her high school marching band her junior and senior years of high school.

And as a senior in high school, she auditioned and won the 1st chair alto saxophone for the Florida All-State Jazz Band.

Mindi spent her first year of college on a full scholarship at the University of North Florida, a jazz program started by Rich Matteson ( North Texas State University ).

She then transferred to Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where she attended on scholarship and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Woodwind Performance.

During her years at Berklee, Mindi studied with Joe Viola and George Garzone on saxophone.

She formed her first band in college.