Artist Bio

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Kahlil Childs is an alto saxophonist and composer from San Diego California. He is the leader of the Kahlil Childs Quartet and a member of the Rob Thorsen Quartet which features some of the finest professional musicians in San Diego. In addition to alto sax, he plays soprano sax, bass clarinet, clarinet, and flute. He has studied with Charles McPherson -- a Detroit legend, and one of the greatest living masters of the alto saxophone. He currently works with Grammy award winning musician & producer Kamau Kenyatta (another Detroit legend). Kahlil is a featured player in the Young Lions Jazz Conservatory under the directorship of renowned trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos. 

Kahlil has performed onstage and in studio sessions with a wide range of world-class musicians and producers across genres ranging from jazz, to soul, to hip-hop, to traditional West African. This list includes Christian Sands, Curtis Taylor, Yasushi Nakamura, Corcoran Holt, Kamau Kenyatta, Marion Hayden, Jaribu Shahid, Adama Bilorou, Shenel Johns, Kris Johnson, Theron Brown, Gilbert Castellanos, Allen Dennard, JR Got the Hits, 1200 Watts, and Denaun Porter.

In 2024 and 2025, Kahlil was chosen for the J.C. Heard All-Star High School Band, and featured at the 45th and 46th Annual Detroit International Jazz Festivals. For the 2025 Detroit Festival, Kahlil had the distinct honor of being chosen by legendary bassist, and Kresge Eminent Artist Award Winner, Marion Hayden, to join her Legacy Band -- along with Kamau Kenyatta -- for one of the festival's closing performances.

Kahlil was a member of the 2025 Next Generation Jazz Orchestra -- one of the finest youth orchestras in the country -- a band that performed at the 68th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival under the directorship of the great pianist and bandleader, Gerald Clayton. He was also chosen by the renowned pianist and composer Christian Sands to join his band at the Monterey Jazz Fest in playing Sands' newly commissioned piece: "Reflections from the Shore: A Monterey Suite." 

In November 2025, Kahlil took his own quartet across the Atlantic for its European debut at "Szeged Jazz Days" in Szeged, Hungary -- a festival that has featured greats such as Joe Henderson, Pharoah Sanders, Ron Carter, Kenny Garrett, Mulgrew Miller, Terence Blanchard, and Chief Adjuah since its inception in 1976. For his set at the festival, Kahlil introduced a new suite of original compositions entitled "Mergence" -- conceived in the tradition of modern, conceptual works such as John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" and Immanuel Wilkins's "The 7th Hand."

Kahlil was recently named to the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra for the second year in a row and will be performing with that stellar big band--once again led by Gerald Clayton--at the upcoming 69th Monterey Jazz Festival to be held in late September 2026. Adding to this honor for 2026, Kahlil was selected as an award winner for jazz saxophone in the YoungArts organization's prestigious national competition. In May of this year, Kahlil was honored to be named Outstanding Alto Saxophonist at the Essentially Ellington Competition at Jazz at Lincoln Center, in New York City, for his rousing rendition of "The Star-Crossed Lovers" by Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn. Kahlil is also absolutely thrilled to have been selected as a member of the acclaimed Carnegie Hall National Youth Orchestra (NYO Jazz) for its 2026 season. Directed by the accomplished trumpeter and composer Kris Johnson, NYO Jazz will perform at Carnegie Hall and SF Jazz this summer and then head out on a multi-country tour of Asia with 3 time Grammy winning singer, Dee Dee Bridgewater.