Composer/clarinetist Evan Ziporyn is a founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars (Musical America’s 2005 Ensemble of the Year), with whom he has toured the globe since 1992. He redefined the clarinet with his 2001 solo CD, This Is Not A Clarinet, which made numerous Top Ten lists across America.
He recorded Steve Reich’s solo clarinet New York Counterpoint for Nonesuch and, as a member of the Steve Reich Ensemble, the Grammy Award-winning Music for 18 Musicians. His music provided the soundtrack for the PBS film Tail-enders, and his playing was featured in Tan Dun's soundtrack for the film Fallen.
He has also recorded with Paul Simon, Matthew Shipp, and Ethel. He is also Founder and Artistic Director of Boston’s Gamelan Galak Tika, a group dedicated to new music for Balinese gamelan, which he has studied for almost 30 years.
He received a Fulbright in 1987, and in 1990 began composing an ongoing series of groundbreaking cross-cultural works, combining gamelan with saxophones, guitars, electronics, Chinese and African instruments, and full orchestra.
Evan Ziporyn appears in the following:
David Bowie's 'Blackstar' Reimagined for Cello
Friday, January 10, 2020
Eight Days of Steve: Evan Ziporyn
Thursday, December 10, 2009
I'm not a first -- or even second -- generation Reichian: I was still in grade school in the late '60s when the Bob, Russ, etc. were taking the bus down from Wesleyan to rehearse what became Drumming in Steve's loft. He entered my consciousness my freshman year of high school, when Betty Jacobsen -- a hip, elderly "Materials of Music" teacher -- tore our heads open with It's Gonna Rain.
