Full Bio

Based in New York City, saxophonist Zach Herchen performs contemporary music and improvisation. His influences range across classical, jazz, and rock music. This, along with technical training in saxophone performance and audiovisual electronics, make Zach uniquely equipped for contemporary music. He is constantly collaborating with composers to create new music that ranges from classical duets to jazz-inspired improvisation poems and multimedia pieces. Always in search of something new, he has premiered numerous works in collaboration with a wide variety of artists.

Zach has performed as a soloist in Italy, Sweden, Germany, and across the United States and venues including at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall, Kennedy Center, and Lincoln Center. He has given solo performances at institutions and festivals including The Peabody Conservatory, New England Conservatory, Princeton University, Duke University, William Paterson University, Venice Biennale, The Stone, North American Saxophone Alliance, Look & Listen Festival, SEAMUS, University of Richmond’s Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, the University of Mary Washington’s Electroacoustic Barn Dance, American Composers Alliance, and the National Association for Music Educators Eastern Division Conference.

Heavily engaged in chamber music, Zach is a member of New Thread Quartet and artistic director of the chamber music series Con Vivo Music. Past projects and ensembles include Rhymes With Opera, First Construction (violin/sax/piano trio), Emerging Voices Project (voice/sax duo), Ruckus NYC (conference and concert about art and the web), AM/PM Sax Quartet, and No Signal (new music and improv). Zach has performed with ensembles such as Talea Ensemble, the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, Ensemble Échappé, The Dream Unfinished, and Music For Contemplation.

As a champion of new music, Zach has worked with and premiered music by composers such as Tristan Murail, Chaya Czernowin, Amy Beth Kirsten, Kati Agócs, Elliott Sharp, Christopher Theofanidis, Michael Gordon, David Lang, Martin Bresnick, Fabien Lévy, Jacob Ter Veldhuis, Marilyn Shrude, Scott Wollschleger, Victoria Cheah, Ruby Fulton, Taylor Brook, Emily Koh, Lori Laitman, George Lam, Ken Thomson, David Sanford, and many more.

Zach has attending the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice, Boston University’s Spectral Summer Professional Performance Workshop, the 4th International Master-Class for Classical Saxophone, and the 32nd International Saxophone Symposium. He has completed artist residencies at Wildacres Retreat and SMUSH Gallery.

His projects have received grant funding from organizations such Chamber Music America, New Music USA, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, The Fromm Music Foundation, Hudson County Office of Cultural Affairs, Jersey City Arts and Culture Trust Fund, The Queens Council on the Arts, Alice M. Ditson Fund, and the NYC Cultural Development Fund.

Zach has performed on recordings released on New Focus Recordings, Innova Recordings, and New World Records. He has recorded with artists and ensembles such as New Thread Quartet, Emerging Voices Project, Rhymes With Opera, Ken Thomson, David Claman, Elliot Sharp, Emily Koh, and more.

As a music educator, Zach presented masterclasses, panel talks, and residencies at schools such as The Peabody Conservatory, Berklee, UVA, NYU, Umass Amherst, Queens College Aaron Copland School, Binghamton University (2022), University of Mary Washington, Suffolk County Community College, and more. Zach has served as staff member at the Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice and has been saxophone faculty at the Thurnauer School of Music since 2012 where his students have been accepted to Interlochen, Tanglewood, Manhattan School of Music Summer Program, and beyond.

Outside of the classical realm, Zach has performed in off-Broadway productions (saxophone, flute, and clarinet), with the punk jazz group Joy on Fire, and with a wide range of groups including Zozo Afrobeat, Baltimore Afrobeat Society, Darlene Love, Steven Van Zandt, Hot ShimShaw Big Band, a Jim Hensen Foundation shadow puppet show, and the fully improvised rock crossover group After School Orchestra.

He has performed alongside an incredible array of musicians including Tony Arnold, Elliot Sharp, Ken Thomson, Todd Reynolds, Steve Drury, Svet Stoyanov, Courtney Orlando, Mathias Reumert, Michael Formanek, Gary Thomas, Ann Theresa Kang, and Rane Moore.

As an audio engineer Zach has recorded and produced music for over 15 years. His client list includes Carnegie Hall, Library of Congress, PBS, Yefim Bronfman, Glenn Kotche, American Classical Orchestra, Dan Lippel, Michael Harrison, Hypercube, Popebama, thingNY, Kati Agócs, and many more.

Zach holds a MM and BM in Saxophone Performance (and a BM in Recording Arts Engineering) from The Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University. At Peabody he performed with the Conservatory Avant-Garde Ensemble, Peabody Improvisation and Multimedia Ensemble, wind ensemble, jazz band, orchestras, and opera department. Zach is a recipient of an Outstanding Recent Graduate Award, the Richard Franko Goldman Prize for performance, a performance scholarship, and two Career Development Grants from Peabody. He has also received a Technology Fellowship Grant from Johns Hopkins University.

Zach has studied saxophone with Gary Louie, Gary Thomas, Arno Bornkamp, Timothy McAllister, Vincent David, Jan Schulte-Bunert, and Ties Mellema.