Short Bio

Zachary Crockett is a coder and composer of rituals and dances who strives for the primal and reverent in his work. He believes the creation of meaning is the most important human activity. Zachary collaborates with choreographers, in particular Heather Parker Westerlund, and is composer-in-residence with RenegadeEnsemble.

Crockett has attended Vanderbilt, Le Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau, Peabody Conservatory, and the University of Minnesota where he is a Ph.D. candidate pursuing an evening-length, multi-choreographer dance and multimedia performance as his dissertation.

Long Bio

Zachary Crockett is a prolific composer, computer programmer, and interdisciplinary collaborator living in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, where he takes joy in all of life, but especially in music, nature, and scholarship.

Crockett's artistic fascinations lie especially in the perception of music performance as ritual. This philosophy presents itself most forcefully to date in his work Fire: Their Voices Cracked for saxophones, percussion, and didgeridoo. His music has been described most often as primal and reverent.

A frequent collaborator, Mr. Crockett has a particular interest in dance, having formally studied modern dance and choreography himself. Current collaborative projects include works with San Francisco percussionist Jay Bordeleau and Minneapolis choreographer Heather Parker. In October 2004, Zachary worked with Ms. Parker as well as sculptor Bonnie Brabson on the Arts Quarter Collective's ArtsMosis festival. Crockett subsequently led the AQC until 2008, first with Sara Shaylie, then with dancer Annie Hanauer. He also served as Assistant Director of the Spark Festival in 2007-2008. Parker and Crockett collaborated for the 2005 ArtsMosis festival on Intoxication and the Plastic Energy Complex, a work involving the use of sensors and wireless data transmission to allow the dancer interactive control over the music to which she moves.

Mr. Crockett is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota under the tutelage of Douglas Geers, Alex Lubet, David Gompper, and Judith Lang Zaimont. Mr. Crockett also holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of The Johns Hopkins University and the Blair School of Music of Vanderbilt University.

In addition to his current teachers, Crockett's compositional studies have been guided by Robert Sirota, Michael Kurek, and Michael Rose. While attending the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France, Zachary took lessons from Isabelle Duha, André Bon, and Marco Stroppa.

Zachary also loves to explore those not-so-oft-reached places in nature. In June and July of 2004, he and his wife, pianist Solange Guillaume, hiked the John Muir Trail, over 200 miles from Mount Whitney, the highest point in California, north, to Yosemite National Park. They also enjoy all varieties of rock climbing together, having scaled stone in the Shawangunks, Red River Gorge, Hueco Tanks, the Berkeley Rocks (Goat, Castle, etc.), Annapolis Rock, and most recently at Bear Lodge a.k.a. Devil's Tower.

Mr. Crockett finds sublime beauty in mathematics, especially fractals, wavelets, and superstring theory. He has completed coursework for a PhD minor in computer science.

Crockett's future plans include founding a music festival in New Hampshire with Solange Guillaume, and moving thereafter to retrieve his heart, which he left in San Francisco.

Curriculum Vitae

selected works

recent performances

positions

grants & fellowships

software

publications

cracked red surface