Zach Green

https://linktr.ee/zmgreen

Zach “Z. M.” Green is a widely talented and versatile musician well-versed in an extensive variety of musical genres, ensembles, and realms of writing. Born in Columbus, Ohio to a family of hobbyist musicians, Zach knew at a young age that his love of music wouldn’t be limited to just a casual pastime; it would become a deep passion of constant writing and learning. After being surrounded by Barbershop vocal music, casually tinkering at the piano, and drumming on household objects, he took guitar lessons for five years, while simultaneously putting his interest in rhythm to use by playing percussion in elementary and middle school bands. It was in middle school where Zach became fascinated with recording and producing music, creating short covers of pop and classic rock songs at home. Around the same age, he gained experience as a performer playing guitar in a student-led bluegrass band, gigging across central Ohio.

Soon, his interests turned to writing — going into high school, Zach’s love of arranging took shape through his involvement in choir, marching band, symphonic band, jazz band, and musical theatre. Starting with a cappella arrangements, then moving to marching percussion, marching band, and jazz combo charts, he honed his theory knowledge and studied music at a higher level than before. At this time, Zach also wrote his first original songs, inspired by traditional pop music and jazz standards, and used this skill as a way to create fun projects for classes at school. As he dove into songwriting, he attended Berklee College of Music’s summer songwriting workshop, which, along with continuing to study arranging, fully motivated him to pursue music in college and as a career.

During his time as a student at Berklee, Zach became a self-published composer/arranger, a registered member of ASCAP, DJ for his own radio show at the Berklee Internet Radio Network (The BIRN), and co-director of the College’s only student-run vocal jazz group, Point of Departure. Co-directing and arranging for Point of Departure led Zach to fall in love with the world of vocal jazz harmony and writing, and it built his experience as a music director and conductor (and also resulted in a Contemporary A Cappella Recording Award [CARA] nomination in 2020). His studies at Berklee further expanded his knowledge of composition, arranging, songwriting, music production and technology, and engraving; this culminated in Zach graduating summa cum laude in 2019. Today, Zach is based in New York City, and is the founder and director of the 11-piece jazz band Zach Green’s Elevention, along with being the co-founder and music director of the vocal jazz group The New Standard.

He is sought after for his original songs (music and lyrics) and instrumental jazz tunes, marching band and vocal jazz charts, and his work as a producer, vocalist, guitarist, and percussionist in both live and studio environments.