Zachary Bornheimer
Jazz composer and saxophonist Zachary Bornheimer’s lyrical improvisations and melody-
driven compositions have sparked international and national intrigue with performances in
Florida, Chicago, Italy, France, England, and terrestrial radio. Bornheimer was a 2017
Fellow at RSMI’s Program for Jazz and a Y2K Fellow at the University of South Florida,
where he earned his MM in Jazz Composition.
Bornheimer’s small and large ensemble works are noted with accolades: his composition
“Haunted Lullaby of the Forgotten” is one of the winners of Ravinia’s Bridges competition,
he is the first 2x winner of the Owen Prize in Jazz Composition for his composition “Elegy”
(2017) arrangement of Donny McCaslin’s “Henry” (which was premiered by McCaslin), and
his composition “Color Shift” was both a Finalist for The 2015 Herb Alpert Young Jazz
Composer Awards was selected for part of the the International Society of Jazz Arrangers
and Composers’ 2017 Symposium for the New Music Workshops. Bornheimer’s has also
recently worked as Associate Producer for Maria Schneider’s Grammy-Nominated Data
Lords recording.
Bornheimer was a Finalist for the 2017 VSA’s International Young Soloist Award and was
selected by Billy Childs, Nathan Davis, and Rufus Reid for the RSMI 2017 All Star
Quintet. Bornheimer has performed with Chick Corea, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks
Orchestra, The Four Seasons (The Modern Gentleman), and saxophonist Jack Wilkins,
along with various guest artists while at USF including: Maria Schneider, Rufus Reid, Steve
Houghton, Ron Blake, Donny McCaslin, Gary Smulyan, and more. Bornheimer was
recently appointed instructor of Saxophone at Eckerd College.
Bornheimer is following in the footsteps of many great composers who have come before
him and is working as a copyist as well. He has copied for Tom Brantley, Tommy
Goodman, Chuck Owen, Maria Schneider, and others.
Bornheimer has studied composition with Chuck Owen, Dean Eaves, and Maria Schneider,
saxophone primarily with Jack Wilkins, Valerie Gillespie, and took a few lessons from Ralph
Bowen and Rick Margitza along the way. Bornheimer also studied flute with Valerie
Gillespie and Clarinet with Brian Moorhead.