Zach Mayer will be Temple Israel’s Artist in Residence from Friday-Sunday, March 14-16. For information about programs and services, see TI to hold Artist in Residence Weekend, March 14-16. Can music change the world? Multi-talented Zach Meyer seems to think so. Mayer – who is a singer, composer, teacher, pianist and saxophonist – puts these talents to use when he leads musical programs for Jewish organizations and synagogues. In fact, he sees music as a way to create community and bring people together, something he thinks is especially important in today’s world.

“During these times of divisiveness across the Jewish world, we need moments of sharing of our collective tradition that will bring us together,” he said in an e-mail interview. “My workshops are inclusive and my concerts are participatory – everyone is invited to join in joyous song. My work is successful when I create even a moment of bringing peace – hava’at shalom – in service of tikkun olam, repairing the world.”
He also believes that music can have an effect on the greater world. “Music is my tool for building community,” Mayer said. “I am challenging myself to apply this tool toward some of the world’s biggest problems such as climate change and the closing of our country’s borders to immigrants. My effort might be small, but it has led me to begin bringing my saxophone to protests and marches in Boston, joining a brigade of Boston’s finest horn-wielding musician activists, providing joyous energy for the others at the march. I do not like it when protests are solely shouting and chanting, which to me feels desensitizing and off-putting. When there is music at a protest, it feels as though the human element has been put back in. As [the late] Pete Seeger said, ‘Get people to sing together and they’ll act together, too.’”
Music also plays a great role in his Jewish practice. “Music is deeply connected to my Judaism,” he noted. “I am the Jewish music director, prayer leader and music teacher at Kahal B’raira, a humanistic synagogue in Boston. I lead High Holiday services for over 300 people, direct the choir and am involved with the Hebrew school. In the last few years, I have developed a musical tish program for various synagogues and have hosted davening in my home. I draw on the ancient and beautiful nigunim taught to me by my stepfather, Rabbi Sruli Dresdner, as well as the chazzanut passed down to me by my great-grandfather, Rabbi Mordecai Weintraub, my great-uncle Cantor David Weintraub (may their memories be for a blessing), and my grandfather Cantor Sol Weintraub, Their legacy and encouragement has led me to write my own nigunim, which all have an echo of my past.” 
Mayer added, “As a multi instrumentalist, singer and composer, I combine my lineage of four generations of chazanim with my background in musical improvisation to awaken a spirit of playfulness, meditative calm and joy. Using the pure, direct and heart-reaching tone of the saxophone, I help people unlock their own inner voices, joining in melodies both old and new that connect, inspire and heal.”
He notes that music plays a major role in his personal spiritual practice. “I find practicing music very meditative and soul-stirring – a time where I can be at one with myself,” he added. “I try to begin each day with a musical meditation, followed by a designated time for an outpouring of song, which is my personal hitbodedut [meditative practice]. On my best days, practicing music feels like a yogic meditation – in which my mind is still and pleased with the simple fact of being alive. My best practices are when the work feels like it is being done for its own sake – when the idea of reaching goals temporarily flees from my mind.”
For Mayer, there is also something special about creating new music. “When I create my own work, I feel that I am channeling the flow of divine energy into a form that others can enjoy, much like a wine-maker, each day pressing the abundant source of the earth into a bottle, to enjoy and share with others,” he noted. “When I produce the work of other musicians, I imagine myself working like a doula, helping to birth new life into the world. Both of these creative processes are central to my identity as an artist and as a human being.”
Mayer recently completed his third album of original Jewish music, which will be released this summer. For more information or to support his work, click here.