Austin Zhang - Workshop Coordinator / Saxophone
Austin Zhang is a jazz saxophonist, electronic musician, and composer based in New York City. Zhang graduated from the Manhattan School of Music on scholarship and went on to perform with giants of jazz music: Terri Lyne Carrington, Wycliffe Gordon, the Mingus Big Band, and others. Zhang’s saxophone has been heard at such venues as Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Newport Jazz Festival.
Austin uses his music as a communication medium to further social and environmental causes. In 2022, the United Nations Human Rights division commissioned a composition from Austin to counter reductively negative views of immigration. Zhang recorded his mother detailing her story of escape from Mao-ist China in search of freedom and scored her story with music for saxophone and electronics. He later performed the score live at Joe’s Pub in NYC. Additionally, Austin led a jazz quintet at the first AAPI Jazz Festival in the midst of record-settings rates of hate crime against Asian Americans.
