Biography

Ethan Isaac (b. 1996) is a composer whose music has been described as "post-revolutionary" with "an almost Elgarian sweep of broad melody" (New York Classical Review). Fusing alchemical audio processes with conventional notation, their work moves between Russian novels and urban planning, spectral acoustics and embodied memory. Ethan holds a B.A. from Bard College and an M.A. from Rutgers University, where they studied with Kyle Gann, Matt Sargent, Robert Aldridge, and Scott Ordway, and is currently a PhD candidate in Composition and Theory at the University of Pittsburgh under Charles Peck, teaching undergraduate theory and composition while researching new methods of realizing just intonation music. Additionally, Ethan currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Charles Ives Society.

Recent work includes Lavender, a multimedia piece for saxophone quartet paired with Ethan's macro cinematography of insects, premiered by ~Nois at the Andy Warhol Museum. Ethan is currently collaborating with sculptor Laura Jean McLaughlin on her Imprints project with the International Sculpture Center, and will travel to Slovenia later this year for a residency with precept.concept.precept.

Ethan also performs regularly around Pittsburgh, with recent appearances at Frick Fine Arts and Government Center. They are one half of two duos: .wad, with Danny Fratina — free improvisation and composed noise music for modular synthesizers and Beacon, Fratina's heavily modified electronic trumpet — and Ethereal Semantics, with Sam Bernhardt, given over to long-form, lyrical improvisations for guitar and live electronics.

Alongside composition, Ethan has worked as an audio engineer under producers Jamey Lamar and Marlan Barry, recording artists including Branford Marsalis, Arturo Sandoval, Tommy Emmanuel, the Dover Quartet, and members of the LA Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, and MET Orchestra. For Inquiries Email: ethanisaacsound@gmail.com.