Zach Marley is from Louisville, Kentucky and is a freelance low brass artist and
teacher. Equally versed on all low brass instruments, Zach has been very successful in international competitions on multiple instruments. He was awarded second prize in the prestigious Leonard Falcone Artist Tuba competition in 2015, 2016, and 2018. During the International Tuba Euphonium Conference in 2016, Zach was a semifinalist in the Artist Tuba competition and was awarded second prize in the Rich Matteson Jazz competition in which he played euphonium. At the 2017 International Women’s Brass Conference Zach won first prize on euphonium, second prize on tuba and third in the overall instrument round.
An active teacher as well as performer, Zach has a private studio of both in person and virtual low brass students. Prior to teaching at the University of Minnesota-Duluth, Zach was adjunct faculty at Southeastern Oklahoma State and Tarleton State University.
Zach has had the pleasure of performing with many great artists such as Wycliffe Gordon, Bob Mintzer, Andy Martin, Roger Ingram, Brian MacDonald, Marshall Gilkes, Jiggs Whigham, John Fedchock, Denis DiBlasio, Gordon Goodwin, Tom “Bones” Malone, Eugene Rousseau, Sal Lozano, Bernard Wright, Peter Erskine and John Clayton. Zach has also performed with the Dallas Winds and has been a semifinalist for multiple major orchestral positions. While an undergraduate student at the University of North Texas, Zach performed with the Symphony Orchestra on tuba and the Two O’clock Lab Band on trombone. Before graduating with a double major in Music Performance and Jazz Studies, Zach was voted most outstanding undergraduate brass student by the entire brass faculty.
During his master’s degree at Northwestern University Zach performed with the Contemporary Music Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, Jazz Orchestra on lead trombone and Symphonic Wind Ensemble on both tuba and euphonium.
Zach Marley performs exclusively on Denis Wick mutes and mouthpieces.