Name: Zach Hicks

From: Brooklyn, New York

Few people know that I… love folding origami frogs out of MetroCards

Education: MM (Music Composition), New England Conservatory of Music; BM (Music Performance), NYU Steinhardt; Manhattan School of Music Precollege; LaGuardia High School for the Arts

I play and teach: Flute, clarinet, saxophone

My other artistic/musical endeavors: The Park Slope Woodwind Quintet

Personal Teaching Statement: My teaching style is flexible and dynamic. My curriculums are custom-created in order to best accommodate students of any background. I believe that creative practices are essential for our mental well-being, and that anyone who is interested in creating music can learn.

Biography: Zach Hicks is a flutist, composer and educator born and based in Brooklyn. He is the founder and flutist of the Park Slope Woodwind Quintet, and the co-founder and artistic director of Off the Chamber, a new concert series showcasing chamber music written for nonstandard combinations of instruments. Zach has performed around the world with Orchestra 201, the Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra, Utopia Opera and the NY Youth Symphony. He is the youngest winner of NYU Steinhardt’s Woodwind Concerto Competition, and has participated as a finalist in competitions across the United States, such as the San Diego Flute Guild’s Young Artist Competition and the Jefferson Symphony’s Young Artist Competition.

Zach’s original music has been performed and recorded by a variety of musical groups such as the Horizon Ensemble chamber orchestra, the Cassatt Quartet, and the new music trio, Sputter Box. Recent commissioners of Zach’s music include members of the Jefferson Symphony, the piano studio of Victor Rosenbaum, and violist Elsie Bae Han. In 2020, his work for string quartet, “Hanging by a Thread,” was the winner of the NEC Honors Ensemble Composition Competition, and his solo baritone saxophone piece, “Lost in Translation,” was premiered by Claire Salli at the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference in Arizona.

Zach completed his Masters of Music Composition at the New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Stratis Minakakis in May 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. During his undergraduate years at NYU Steinhardt, Zach studied flute performance with Soo-Kyung Park and music composition with Justin Dello Joio as a Gale and Ira Drukier Music scholar. His other principal teachers include Kati Agócs for composition, Lyle Davidson for harmony and Frances Brodeur for flute.