Zach Zaitlin Music

As I continue to do this little “retrospective” on my 2009 Joyeux Noël EP (as part of the build-up to the release of my first-ever full-length album, PRIMETIME, sometime soonish!) it occurred to me that having some pics from that time of my life might be reasonable, and hopefully not too sentimental.

When I wrote “Coffee and Treats”, the third track on the EP, I was living in Portland, Oregon, with a really fun and close group of friends — the kind where you could just drop by unannounced at their house (or at least I thought that was welcome/acceptable…), and then venture off, quite often, for, well, ”coffee and treats” (Portland was and continues to be an epic wonderland for both of those things). This ritual was really a central part of our lives!

So what is this song about? My writing it certainly was not a declaration that I’d never get coffee and treats with my friends ever again (phew). Like most of my songs, it took on various layers of meaning as I wrote it, and it continues to do so even now many years later.

I think it’s primarily a sort of “coming of age” song (still feels like most of my songs are in some sense, even the ones I’m writing now!), reflecting on this awareness that life would change, and that I could see that that period of my life, even as I was living it, would one day be a (mostly sweet and pleasant) memory. At the same time, especially in verse 2, the lyrics describe a concretely present and immediate experience of being in love. But, looking back now, it seems that perhaps even as I wrote it, part of me knew that that too would be a thing of the past before too long — like so many of my songs, I seem to be trying to capture obliquely my sense of wonder and mystification (is that a word?) over how time works, about what all of these experiences and relationships ultimately mean.

Anyway, if all that’s a bit too heady for you, you can see that, indeed, many treats were had during this period of my life, and much music was played as well.

Speaking of time, this song has a few time-specific refs from when I wrote it (2008-9) and also quotes/plays off a piece of classical music. Did you catch any of those? 🤔

Oh, by the way, did I mention I've been composing a new choral piece? Well I have, and it's getting its premiere Tuesday, 4/21!

I've been working as Assistant Choir Director/Accompanist at , an independent Quaker school outside Philly since 2017. The piece, "Let Your Life Speak", is based on the words of George Fox (the guy who basically founded Quakerism). But it also incorporates the words and thematic ideas of kids in the choir! It's been a really interesting collaborative process between me, the kids, and my colleague, choir director over a number of months. I've sought to weave together and find connections between the students' words and imagery (much of which connects to nature, plants, and personal authenticity/integrity) with Fox's.

The whole project was partially inspired by composer 's beautiful "On the Horizon", which I had the honor of helping to premiere as a singer with last year (funnily enough, in a series of happy coincidences, Melissa actually did a workshop with the FCS choir this spring and we looked at the new piece together).

Anyway, this is just the second time one of my choral pieces has had an irl performance so I'm proud that this is happening, and also proud of the work the student singers have been putting into it.

The concert is free and open to the public! Tuesday, 4/21 at 7:00 PM at Friends' Central Upper School campus in City Ave in Wynnewood, PA. Come check us out! 🎶

A big and belated thank you to everyone who braved -15 windchills to come to my February show at . Wow, that is commitment, and I'm truly grateful for it!

It was a thrilling experience to play in that beautiful space, to hear the fascinating set from .band , to share my songs with you in an intimate, acoustic way on a piano grand in more ways than one, and especially to have very special guest Kei Fukuda on violin!

1. Kei and I playing the end of "Coffee and Treats" from my 2009 EP, Joyeux Noël.

2. Me playing world non-open-mic premiere of new song! Pretty sure I'm calling it "Wild".

3. "We Were Twenty", from my forthcoming debut LP, due out fall 2026.

Hope to see you again at the next one ❤️

Magical l'il wintry getaway 😊 Made it out in one piece despite quasi sliding down an entire ice-covered mountain and staying in an inn with high haunting likelihood. Beautiful little town! (And great ☕️)

Monday cross-country...skating? Only disastrously crashing 1.5 times pretty good for first time since like 1995.

(Also, come to my show Saturday at 22nd and Spruce! 😊)

Swipe to see the details on my upcoming show at near Rittenhouse Square! All proceeds benefit , an amazing charity providing food to people in need in our area. I think this is going to be a really special evening and special setting for sharing my tunes with y'all. Hope you can make it.

Had to take a quick breather from posting and talking about my Kickstarter there after going at it HARD for 30+ days straight (😬), but wanted to once again express a huge and deeply heartfelt thank you to all who supported, shared about, and encouraged my campaign to fund the completion and release of my first full-length LP. We did it! 🙌🙌

Thanks to over 💯 generous pledges, the campaign hit over 110% of its original goal when it concluded on Friday. These resources will enable the record to be ushered through the critical final steps of mixing, mastering, artwork/design, physical printing, and release, while affording me the great blessing of not having to go into considerable debt to make it happen, thus making this work as an independent musician sustainable. I can't thank you all enough, and I'm so excited to share the fruits of this team effort with you all, hopefully by summer 2026! 🤞

And the timing is quite perfect: later that very day, I spent another fruitful afternoon working with producer to sort out, arrange, and tweak the elements of the tracks on the album in order to fine-tune the sound and overall vision of the record to ready them for mixing (a process we've been chipping away at for about a year now!), and after that session, half the tracks on the album are officially in the "ready to mix" bucket -- and the rest are getting quite close! -- as shown in my high-tech tracking system here. We are on track for a seamless continuation of the process thanks to y'all's help!

Stay tuned for the latest on this creative journey! And now, to gratefully recognize the final batch of supporters of this thing: mile grazie to Frank Kanther, Amanda Breen, , , , Erik Potteiger, and the Joshua Smelser Memorial Fund (you should check that last one out). 🙏🙏🙏