Sebastian Zhang

Hi, I’m Sebastian! I write classical music that draws upon jazzy video game music, the modern chiptune scene, and upbeat anime music.

I grew up writing music using chiptune trackers, which are music sequencers restricted to the technical limitations of old video game consoles such as the Nintendo Entertainment System and the Game Boy. I owe a lot of my early compositional development not from formal music classes, but from obscure documentation scattered across old internet forums, maximizing the possibilities of writing music on forty-year-old video game consoles in the modern era.

Additionally, I was also drawn to anime and video game music, which I would practice and arrange for solo piano, and later marimba. I found that these syncopated, vibrant motifs worked well in a “classical” setting, so I began to improvise in a similar style.

As a composer, I seek to write music that embraces this background, this strange “cultural identity” of having grown up in the 2000s enamored with the music of my generation’s nerdy pop culture. This background resonates with a lot of people, and it is my hope that the music I create inspires others in their musical journey as well.

Sebastian Zhang (b. 2003) is a composer-percussionist currently pursuing a B.M. in Music Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He currently studies both composition and percussion performance under Ivan Trevino and percussion performance under Thomas Burritt.