Community Engagement

A passionate teaching artists invested in expanding the impact of classical music, Zachary has dedicated considerable time and energy to a community engagement programs. In 2018, he organized a benefit concert for immigrant families in partnership with ACLU and the Shut Down Berks Campaign, featuring musicians from the Philadelphia Orchestra, Daedalus Quartet, and Curtis Institute. As a recipient of a 2017 Community Artist Project (CAP) grant from the Curtis Institute, Zachary piloted a program bringing joint presentations of interactive workshops on music arrangement with formal recitals to community venues throughout Philadelphia, including the Free Library of Philadelphia and Settlement Music School. He has also performed for Music For Food, Project Music Heals Us, public schools throughout New Mexico with Music From Angel Fire, Philadelphia's Project HOME (where he also led song-writing and arrangement workshops)..

More recently, Zachary has brought programs to the Community Center Arnaud Fraiteur for handicapped children and IRSA (Royal Institute for the Deaf and Blind) in Brussels. He helped produce ensemble132’s Benefit Concert for the Boston Resiliency Fund, supporting those most vulnerable to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Boston area. As a 2022-23 Curtis Community Artist Fellow, he worked with Philadelphia-area high school students to create works and performances that engage with climate justice, as well as with the Penn Memory Center and other community organizations. In March 2023, he will be sharing his work on climate at Western University and his work with people living with dementia for a Philadelphia Chamber Music Society event.

Looking Forward

A fervent advocate for new music and innovative programming, Zachary has premiered an array of new works by prominent and young composers alike, including the world premiere of Richard Danielpour’s string quintet Shattered Vessel at Music from Angel Fire in 2019. He has presented two newly commissioned works for solo cello by Nick DiBerardino and Zachary’s own father, Ira Mowitz, in a series of interactive lecture-recitals named Suite Talk. Nick and Zach have since captured the best of this program in a video series with Guarneri Hall. Nick and Zach also founded Nodality Music, an arts organization that cultivates direct links between artists and audiences with narrative-driven musical experiences. Nodality Music creates, commissions, performs, and advocates for new music, emphasizing authentic stories, human connections, and social impact. One of Nodality’s first projects is an extensive commissioning initiative around climate justice.