austin willacy

Austin Willacy is a musician, a cappella artist, producer, singer/songwriter, mentor, and facilitator.

As a musician and singer/songwriter, he has collaborated with and mentored a diverse range of vocalists, songwriters, DJs, and other producers, of all ages, in and out of the studio.

As a singer, he’s performed over 2500 shows in 15 countries with the critically-acclaimed a cappella “rock band without instruments”, The House Jacks, and has performed alongside Bonnie Raitt, the Doobie Brothers, Jem, Vienna Teng, Rachael Yamagata, and Amos Lee, among many others. 

As a mentor, Austin has led 'Til Dawn for almost three decades, Youth in Arts’ award-winning teen a cappella group that empowers youth to find their voices in many ways.

As a songwriter, Austin has been awarded eight Positive Music Awards.

In addition, Austin is the co-founder and co-artistic director of Wildchoir, of the Oakland-based, healing artivist collective.

…and a connector, activist, and changemaker.

Austin is all about connections: connecting people across social and political divides, connecting audiences with new forms of music and art, and connecting local inequalities to broader systems of injustice.

Through song, dialogue, and play, Austin helps communities ‘connect the dots’ between theory and practice, conflict and peace, ecology and culture.

He organizes and facilitates Jams for YES! to help individual changemakers deepen their root system, grow in consciousness and self-care so they can become healthier and more effective, and restore balance and well-being. He is a veteran member of the North America Jam and one of the co-founders of the Black Diaspora Jam, the Men Raised as Men Jam, and the Arts for Social Change Jams in the US, Turkey, and India.

He has served as a facilitator in places like Turkey, India, and Israel and Palestine, using his unique blend of activism and musicianship to inspire relationship-building and collaborative action.

Environmental Peacebuilding

As an activist and community organizer, Austin has worked for many years at the intersection of art, technological “progress”, community, and environmental peacebuilding, with a focus on environmental, racial, and gender justice.

He is an EnPax Arts Fellowship recipient, and shared his work at the Third International Conference on Environmental Peacebuilding in The Hague. His original song, “The Path to Peace”, is a collaborative music video featured in the Nature Footprints virtual art collection.

Songwriting & Emotional Literacy

For the past two years, through a collaboration with the Santa Barbara County Education Office and Children’s Creative Project, Austin has conducted a workshop on a songwriting and emotional literacy.