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 works that range from classical duets to jazz-inspired improvisation poems and multimedia pieces. Always in search of something new, he has premiered 31 pieces since 2003. His recently released CD, Emerging Voices, presents commissioned works for voice and saxophone with singer Elisabeth Halliday.
Zach has served on staff at New England Conservatory’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Performance Practice and performed at The Stone in NYC, SEAMUS, the 4th International Master-Class for Classical Saxophone, and was a 2008 artist-in-resident at Wildacres Retreat. Zach has performed as a soloist in Italy, Sweden, and Germany, and at Duke University and New England Conservatory. He performed on Scott Alexander’s album “Scott Alexander Makes a Big Deal Out of It” and Man Down’s album “Somewhere Down In Florida”.
Heavily engaged in chamber music, Zach is a founding member of the AM/PM Sax Quartet, dedicated to performing new music. AM/PM has commissioned and premiered five pieces for saxophone quartet, including two chamber operas. AM/PM has performed at the Look & Listen Festival in NYC, the 32nd International Saxophone Symposium, and toured with Rhymes With Opera. Recently they have been presenting a program of multimedia pieces.
Zach is a co-founder and performer with No Signal, a chamber group that focuses on contemporary music, improvisation, comedy, and audience interaction. Typical shows include world premiers, improvisations on audience supplied stories, sketch comedy, rock, and jazz. No Signal has commissioned and premiered a short piece by Christopher Theofanidis entitled 30 Seconds of Glory (or “Antipasto”) and performed in a masterclass with New York-based chamber group Flexible Music.
Outside of the classical realm, Zach performs with the Baltimore-based rock band Man Down, who is currently working on their second studio album. He has performed with the Baltimore Afrobeat Society, Zozo Afrobeat, a Jim Hensen Foundation shadow puppet show, and local DJs.
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 the recipient of a Richard Franko Goldman Prize for performance, a performance scholarship, and a Career Development Grant from Peabody. He has also received a Technology Fellowship Grant from Johns Hopkins.
He has performed with Svet Stoyanov, Courtney Orlando, Mathias Reumert, Michael Formanek, Gary Thomas, Tim Murphy, McGregor Boyle, Ann Theresa Kang, and Rane Moore. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, Symphony Hall, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and Heinz Hall. Zach has studied with Gary Louie, Gary Thomas, Arno Bornkamp, Timothy McAllister, Vincent David, Jan Schulte-Bunert, and Ties Mellema.