ABOUT US

My passion is to inspire creativity in others so that they may become more successful in their roles and create better solutions for those in their care. I am currently the Senior Director for Research and Design at the world-renowned classical music academy New World Symphony. My primary focus is on customer experience and how to use customer insights to improve and redesign offerings. During my time at New World Symphony, I have had the privilege to work with and learn first-hand from people and companies such as Michael Bierut, design leader and Pentagram partner, architects at Gehry Partners, as well as MIT, and IBM.

I’ve served in leadership positions for AIGA and Action Design Network Miami, as well as leading seven global events on Service Design. 

I hold a BA in Graphic Design and Advertising, a certification in Design Thinking and Innovation from the Darden School of Business, a certificate in Mastering Business Models and Value Propositions from Strategyzer, and a certificate in Advanced Design Thinking from IDEO

Hello! 👋 I’m Zach. I’m a designer and storyteller who aims to help people and organizations evolve into better versions of themselves.

After graduating from Juilliard, I moved to Miami to play clarinet with New World Symphony, where I led creative teams to redefine what classical music performances could be. With the support of Knight Foundation, I went on to co-create the first version of Audience Experience Design, a design thinking framework for performing artists. My work innovating concert experiences led me to transition into tech, and I now work as a service designer at Intuit Mailchimp. I also coach individuals through career transitions and blog about career journeys on Medium. In 2023, I’ll be launching a new media project about the future of the classical music field.

I began speaking in 2017 with a TEDx talk called I’m Not Talking about Classical Music and a panel discussion about the future of classical music at Classical:NEXT in Rotterdam. I’ve acted as host in many of my own performance projects, such as DIMENSIONS, transmuse, and Care. I’ve been invited to host live and broadcasted events such as the #classicaltakeover event series by SONOS and IDAGIO and Face-Off Jr, a virtual battle-of-the-bands style children’s concert by New World Symphony.

I live and work in Austin but am available to travel for speaking engagements in the United States and abroad ✈️

Audience Experience Design is sponsored in part by Knight Foundation.