Concert Program

Faculty Recital Series

“We Speak Etruscan”

Zachary Good, clarinets
Thomas Snydacker, saxophones

Wednesda, April 1, 2026
8 pm
Recital Hall

Program

Bios

Zachary Good

Zachary Good is a multifaceted clarinetist, chamber musician, composer and educator based in Chicago. He is the clarinetist of the sextet Eighth Blackbird, a member of Ensemble Dal Niente, and a founding co-artistic director and member of the eccentric performance collective Mocrep. He is a frequent guest with Music of the Baroque Chicago, Present Music Milwaukee, International Contemporary Ensemble and the puppet company Manual Cinema. As an improviser, he performs and records with the trio ZRL and the quintet Honestly Same, as well as regularly appearing on improvised music series throughout Chicago. His discography includes releases on Cedille Records, Moon Glyph Records, American Dreams Records, Carrier Records, No Index, Homeroom, Parlour Tapes+, ears&eyes and his own record label Add Dye Editions.

As a composer, Zachary explores contrapuntal possibilities on the soprano clarinet with small–interval multiphonics (“close dyads” or double stops), creating the illusion of multiple clarinetists playing simultaneously. His music is quietly virtuosic, inspired by the intricacies of the clarinet and a love for Baroque nuance and form. As an arranger, Zachary’s Style Brisé project (2017–present) is an ongoing series of French Baroque harpsichord preludes arranged for bass clarinet, including preludes by Élisabeth de La Guerre, Louis and François Couperin, and Gaspard Le Roux. As a collaborator, Zachary enjoys working closely with composers to bring new work to life, having premiered over 150 compositions to date. While a fellow and regular member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago from 2014–2016, he developed the Orchestra’s New Music Workshop, which continues today as the orchestra’s semi-annual Call for Scores.

He serves as the visiting assistant professor of clarinet at NIU, instructor of clarinet at Harper College, and a woodwind chamber music coach with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra. Alongside the musicians of Eighth Blackbird, he was visiting instructor at the University of Richmond. In 2018, he collaborated with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma at the Youth Music Culture Guangdong Festival in Guangzhou, China as a teaching fellow, mentoring young musicians from around the world. Previously, he served as a middle school band director at the Chicago Waldorf School from 2015 to 2021.

Zachary is a graduate of Northwestern University (DMA), Oberlin Conservatory and DePaul University. His teachers include Steve Cohen, Larry Combs, Richard Hawkins, Kathryn Montoya, Eric Nelson, Ron Samuels and Steve Williamson. 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.

Thomas Snydacker

Thomas Snydacker, a concert saxophonist and educator based in Chicago, has been praised for his “plush tone” (South Florida Classical Review) and his “stunning tour-de-force” and “thoroughly compelling” performances (Chicago Classical Review). He is a member of the Chicago Philharmonic and frequently appears as an orchestral musician with world-class ensembles including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Milwaukee Symphony, and others under the batons of such luminaries as John Adams, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Susanna Mälkki, Marin Alsop, Stéphane Denève, and Matthias Pintscher. His festival appearances as an orchestral musician include the Ravinia Festival, the Grant Park Music Festival, and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.

Snydacker is a tireless advocate for new music and has a list of well over 50 premieres to his credit, including works by Rome Prize winners John Anthony Lennon and Roger Boutry. In addition to his saxophone quartet, the Estrella Consort, he frequently performs and records with notable new music supergroup Ensemble Dal Niente. Snydacker has also performed with such icons as Claude Delangle and the Paris Conservatory Saxophone Ensemble, Bobby McFerrin, Jeffrey Kahane, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Capathia Jenkins, Byron Stripling, and Carmen Bradford, and he has appeared as a soloist with groups including the University of Minnesota Concert Choir, the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble, the Northern Illinois University Wind Symphony, and the University of Illinois – Chicago Wind Ensemble.

Snydacker holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from Northwestern University, where his research focused on spectralism in the saxophone repertoire. He earned a Master of Music from Arizona State University under the guidance of Timothy McAllister and a Bachelor of Music in saxophone performance from the University of Minnesota, where he studied with the esteemed saxophonist and pedagogue Eugene Rousseau.