Roger Zare has been praised for his “enviable grasp of orchestration” (New York Times) and for writing music with “formal clarity and an alluringly mercurial surface.” He was born in Sarasota, Florida, and has written for a wide variety of ensembles, from solo instruments to full orchestra. His works have been performed across the United States by such ensembles as the American Composers Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Sarasota Orchestra, the Omaha Chamber Symphony, the Aspen Music Festival Contemporary Ensemble, and the New York Youth Symphony. An award winning composer, Zare has received the ASCAP Nissim Prize, two BMI Student Composer Awards, a New York Youth Symphony First Music Commission, the 2008 American Composers Orchestra Underwood Commission, a 2010 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and many other local and regional honors. He has been composer in residence at the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington and the SONAR new music ensemble.

Zare is currently pursuing his DMA at the University of Michigan, where he has studied with Bright Sheng, Michael Daugherty and Paul Schoenfield. He holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory (MM) and the University of Southern California (BM), and his previous teachers include Christopher Theofanidis, Derek Bermel, David Smooke, Donald Crockett, Tamar Diesendruck, Fredrick Lesemann, and Morten Lauridsen.