We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Zac Greenberg. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Zac below.

Zac, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I have an arts and medicine non profit with my grandmother called Musicians for Health. Are mission is to create platforms for artists to get involved in the medical field in what ever way speaks to their individual story. For me and my family, the story is cancer. Right around the time I was graduating from 5 years of arts college, after 2 years of performing arts high school, I asked the age old question, “what now?”Why had i just put all this time, energy, and resources into being able to make things that sound a little cooler? Very close to the same time I lost a third grandparent to cancer. My grandmother, Joyce Elkus, asked if I would be interested in writing a programatic piece of music focused on the experience of a cancer patient. We wanted to represent a troubling demographic while raising funds for the facility that treated my grandfather so well, the UC Barrett Cancer Center. I dove had first into research. Interviewing patience, caregivers, doctors, anyone touched by the disease. I did rounds with multiple doctors, on and off, for months. Finally I had a four movement piece, Unexpected Journey. We put on a beautiful event, recorded the music live, and raised a bunch of money for the Barrett Center. After decompressing from this major and intense project, I realized how much i enjoyed having deep meaning and connection to individuals drive my work. Shortly after my grandmother and I received 501c3 accreditation and one of my life longe career paths was cemented.

Zac, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Zac Greenberg, a musician, composer, and sound designer. I have my own studio, Taste Sound, as well as a non profit, Musicians for health. I compose a lot for film, tv, advertising, sonic branding, dance, and stage. I record, produce, mix, master, arrange, orchestrate, all sorts of music and for other. I work a lot in mixed medium instillations for festivals and museums. I have been working lots in VR, AR, and AI. In both a physical and virtual environment, I focus in multimedia collaboration and experiential art. With my non profit I focus on therapeutic sound and the connections of art and medicine.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

As I’m sure is true for most people working at the time, COVID brought a big shift in my career. Before COVID i was primarily playing on the road and running live sound jobs. Since COVID I have settled into the beautiful world of post production. While there is nothing like playing live and making live performances happen, it is extremely taxing. While the transition was happening though, it was difficult to see i was on a road to a more comfortable and sustainable life. It was a scary and difficult time, but the amount of growth and the career I developed through it made it well worth the struggle.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

An aspect of being a creative, at least for my self, that is difficult for non creatives to understand is, I’m always working. While non creative business owners understand this concept in a way, it’s not the same. As a creative, everything we experience, consume, and explore is directly influencing our creativity. Just the act of existing is influencing the experiences we have, these experiences shape our creativity. Our relationship with work has to be deeper than work. The work/life balance has to find a way to become one in the same in some aspects. Not all, but some. Probably most. It’s freeing and exhausting. It’s surreal to think so many experience life in such a fundamentally different way.  

Contact Info:

• Website: zacgreenberg.com, musiciansforhealth.org
• Instagram: @zacgreenberg @musicians_for_health
• Facebook: ZacGreenberg, Taste Sound, Musicians for. Health
• Twitter: zacgreenberg
• Youtube: @ZacGreenberg @MusiciansforHealth

Image Credits
Francis Corby Ceschin