The Event

Matthew Zachary Live at Merkin Hall is a one night only live benefit concert that blends solo piano performance, storytelling, and lived experience. The evening marks 30 years after Matthew Zachary’s original brain cancer diagnosis and serves as the official launch of his debut book, We The Patients.

Through original solo piano music, chapter readings, and special guest voices, the program explores what survival actually looks like over time. It honors resilience without sentimentality and community without spectacle. This is not a gala or a lecture. It is a live cultural moment for people who believe art, honesty, and shared experience still have the power to move a room.

Matthew Zachary

Matthew Zachary is a concert pianist, brain cancer survivor, and founder of We The Patients, a national patient rights organization focused on power, access, and accountability in American healthcare. Recognized as one of the most influential voices in healthcare, he has built a career at the intersection of art, advocacy, community and consequence.

As creator and host of the award winning Out of Patients podcast and founder of Stupid Cancer, he has spent decades elevating patient voices and challenging institutions to reckon with the people they serve.

This performance brings his story full circle, returning him to the stage to honor survival and the community that made it possible.