Zubin Hensler

Zubin Hensler was born in Seattle, now he lives in Brooklyn. He plays the trumpet, writes/records music, and produces albums. Sometimes, he sings.

As a trumpeter, Zubin plays regularly with The Westerlies, a new music brass quartet he co-founded in 2011. He toured/recorded with Vieux Farka Toure and Julia Easterlin as part of their critically acclaimed ‘Touristes’ project, with performances at Celebrate BK, POP Montreal, MASS MOCA, and elsewhere. His trumpeting can be heard in videos or albums by Daniel Rossen, Sylvan Esso, My Brightest Diamond, Half Waif, Relatives, and Alexander Turnquist. Additionally, he has shared the stage with Son Lux, Landlady, Dave Douglas, Bill Frisell, and many others.

As a composer, Zubin writes and records music for video, image, dance, and podcasts. He scored the feature length documentary Crossing Over, which premiered on Univision and Pivot. He wrote music for the acclaimed Camino project by photographer/writer Michael George, which was published by National Geographic both in print and online. Other films containing Zubin’s music have been released by The New Yorker, local PBS stations, and a number of independent film festivals. In collaboration with dance, Zubin wrote and performed the score for Flinch by Elisabeth Motley, which was presented by Jacob’s Pillow and Dance Space. He has also worked with Juilliard Dance and performs regularly with choreographer/performer Maggie Segale.

As a producer, Zubin has had the great joy of making recordings with some of his closest friends and favorite musicians. He has done production work on recordings for The Westerlies (“2014’s best debut album” - Francis Davis, NPR Music), Touristes (“Bravely Original” - The Guardian), Half Waif (“Knocks the wind out of me because it just sounds really cool” - Stereogum), Really Big Pinecone (one of “15 Best Albums You Didn’t Hear in 2015” - Rolling Stone), twig twig (“feels like perpetual sunshine in a world of no night and no morning dawn” - Impose), and many others.