About — Zachary Good

Zachary Good is a Chicago-based clarinetist, Baroque recorder player, composer, arranger, and educator.

Zachary is clarinetist of the sextet Eighth Blackbird, a founding Co-Artistic Director of the performance collective Mocrep, one-third of the clarinet/percussion/cello trio ZRL, and one-fifth of the ensemble Honestly Same. He has frequently performed with International Contemporary Ensemble, Music of the Baroque Chicago, Manual Cinema, and Ensemble Dal Niente. He has been a featured soloist with International Contemporary Ensemble, DePaul University's Ensemble 20+, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s All Access Chamber Series. His discography includes releases on American Dreams Records, Carrier Records, No Index, Homeroom, Parlour Tapes+, ears&eyes, and more.

As a composer, Zachary explores contrapuntal possibilities on the soprano clarinet with close dyad multiphonics. His music is quietly virtuosic, inspired by the intricacies of the clarinet and a love for Baroque nuance and form. As a collaborator he has co-composed album/concert length works with Tonia Ko (Up High), Lia Kohl (Standing Lenticular), Ben Roidl-Ward (Arb), ZRL (Physics for Listeners), and Mocrep (I Like My Friends). Zachary’s “Style Brisé Bass Clarinet” project is an ongoing series of French Baroque harpsichord preludes arranged for bass clarinet. To enhance these arrangements, he has collaborated with Chris Wood to build a custom electronic sustain pedal to artificially recreate the resonance of a harpsichord.

Born in Pittsburgh, Zachary is currently a doctoral candidate at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. He holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory of Music and DePaul University’s School of Music. He is the recipient of the 2021 Luminarts Classical Winds Fellowship. Zachary has participated in fellowships with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and the Aspen Contemporary Music program.

Zachary is a D’Addario Woodwinds Artist and uses Reserve Classic reeds.