Zachary Good is in perfect harmony with himself.
Zachary expands on Baroque tradition with extended techniques like multiphonics and “close dyads” to create complex, contrapuntal compositions that only work with a reed that pushes back.
Zachary’s Reed:
Reserve Classic Clarinet 3.5+
Zachary says, “I like how snappy the reed is. Any time I take out a reed fresh from the box, I'm testing for that snap. And basically what I mean by that is the reed’s ability to push back at me.”
“Every professional clarinet player will know what an R13 is. And so I stubbornly stick to this instrument when I'm doing my multiphonics because I want people to know that what I'm doing is happening right before your eyes. There's no secret. This is not some fancy instrument. I'm making the magic happen.”
About Zachary Good
Zachary Good is a multifaceted clarinetist, Baroque recorder player, composer, arranger, and teacher based in Chicago, navigating Classical, historically-informed, and contemporary performance practices across chamber, solo, orchestral, experimental, and collaborative spaces. He is the clarinetist of the sextet Eighth Blackbird, a member of Ensemble Dal Niente, and a founding Co-Artistic Director of the eccentric performance collective Mocrep. As an improviser, he performs with the trio ZRL and the quintet Honestly Same, and he has frequently appeared with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Music of the Baroque Chicago, and the puppet company Manual Cinema. As a composer, Zachary explores contrapuntal possibilities on the soprano clarinet using small-interval multiphonics ("close dyads"), creating the illusion of multiple clarinetists playing at once — quietly virtuosic music inspired by Baroque nuance and form. He has premiered over 125 compositions to date. Born in Pittsburgh, he holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory, DePaul University, and a doctorate from Northwestern.
