YAYA ESCOBAR

Yaya Escobar is a 22-year-old saxophonist, woodwind specialist, and educator rooted in consciousness, curiosity, and integrity. Originally from Richmond, CA, Yaya grew up surrounded by the sounds of jazz, blues, West African drumming, Trinidadian soca, blues, and funk – and those experiences continue to resonate in his sound today. He is a proud graduate of the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, focusing in jazz saxophone and West African drumming, and currently studies at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, where he is pursuing a double major in Jazz Saxophone and Music Education, along with a K–12 teaching certification in Maryland.

Yaya has had the honor of performing alongside acclaimed artists like Sean Jones, Braxton Cook, Marcus Shelby, Tiffany Austin, Valerie Trout, and Howard Wiley, and has opened for Def Jam artists Eric Bellinger and Zae France at the Fillmore in Washington, DC. He has also performed Nigerian Highlife music with Highlife master Okwy Osadebe at Grand Performances in Downtown Los Angeles and continues to deepen his craft through studies in West African drumming with master drummers C.K. Ladzekpo, Kwesi Anku, Kwaku Manu, and Francis Akotuah, and in jazz saxophone with Tim Green and Howard Wiley.

Whether leading his own ensemble or supporting others, Yaya has taken his music to iconic stages like The Kennedy Center, Yoshi’s, Keystone Korner, An Die Musik, Freight & Salvage, The Valencia Room, and The Atlantis DC.

As a dedicated teaching artist, Yaya brings joy, cultural grounding, and reflection into every space he teaches. He’s worked with young musicians across Baltimore and the Bay Area through programs like BSO OrchKids, the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts, and Oakland Summer Music—always striving to uplift and reflect the communities he serves.

“What’s never changed for me, even as I’ve grown through college, is my commitment to come back to Richmond and Oakland and pour back into the community that raised me. 

I see my time in Baltimore as a chance to be a torchbearer — learning all I can so I can bring it home. My hope is that my students will see someone who looks like them, rooted where they are, doing something meaningful, and know that they can do it too.”

Right now, Yaya is focused on writing and arranging original music, teaching in his hometowns of Oakland and Richmond, and reimagining the music he loves—from the Great American Songbook to funk, blues, and R&B—through his own expressive voice.