Evan Ziporyn is a composer/clarinetist who has forged an international reputation through his genre-defying, cross-cultural works and performances. At MIT he is Inaugural Director of the Center for Art, Science and Technology (CAST), founder of Gamelan Galak Tika, and Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Music.
His music has been commissioned and performed by Yo-yo Ma’s Silkroad Ensemble, Brooklyn Rider, Maya Beiser, Roomful of Teeth, Bang on a Can, Kronos Quartet, PARTCH Ensemble, Kinetic, Wu Man, the American Composers Orchestra, Sentieri Selvaggi, the American Repertory Theater, Steven Schick, So Percussion, Gamelan Sekar Jaya, Sarah Cahill, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. They have been presented at international venues including Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, London’s Barbican Center, the Holland Festival, Brussels Ars Musica, the Singapore Festival, the Sydney Olympics, the Bali International Arts Festival, and Big Ears. His opera A House in Bali (directed by MIT colleague Jay Scheib) was featured at BAM Next Wave in 2010; that same fall his works were the subject of a Carnegie Hall Zankel Making Music composer’s portrait concert. His collaborative installation with visual artists and software engineers have been displayed at Palais de Tokyo (Paris), Boston ICA, the Moody Gallery at Rice University, and the MIT Museum.
From 1992–2012 he was a founding member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars (Musical America’s 2005 Ensemble of the Year), concluding his tenure with an appearance on an episode of PBS’ Arthur. His long-time work with the Steve Reich Ensemble led to a 1999 Grammy for Best Chamber Performance for their recording of Music for 18 Musicians. He is also the featured multi-tracked soloist on Reich’s Nonesuch recording of New York Counterpoint. Other awards include a 2012 Massachusetts Arts Council Fellowship, the 2007 USA Artists Walker Award, and the 2004 American Academy of Arts and Letters Goddard Lieberson Fellowship.
His puppet opera Shadow Bang, a collaboration with master Balinese dalang Wayan Wija, premiered at MassMoCA and was the centerpiece of the 2006 Amsterdam GrachtenFest. With Gamelan Galak Tika, which he founded in 1993, he has performed his compositions at Lincoln Center, the Bali International Arts Festival, and throughout the U.S. His Blackstar Concerto – a based on David Bowie’s last album, and featuring cellist Maya Beiser – has been performed at MIT, Calderwood Hall, Central Park Summerstage, the Barcelona Symphony, and the Adelaide Fringe Festival.
Recordings of his works have been released on Sony Classical, Cantaloupe Music, Islandia Music, New Albion, New World Records, Koch, Innova, CRI, and numerous independent labels. He has collaborated with some of the world’s most creative and vital musicians, including Brian Eno, Paul Simon, Ornette Coleman, Iva Bittová, Maya Beiser, DuoJalal, Thurston Moore, Gyan Riley, Meredith Monk, Bryce Dessner, Philip Glass, Louis Andriessen, Shara Worden, Sandeep Das, Kelley Deal, Cecil Taylor, Henry Threadgill, Wu Man, Matthew Shipp, Wayan Wija, Kyaw Kyaw Naing, Polish jazz masters Waclaw Zimpel and Hubert Zemler, and the string quartet Ethel. He has also released recordings of Terry Riley’s Ki, Eviyan: Nayive (with Iva Bittová & Gyan Riley), and collaborations with DuoJalal, Czech composer Beata Hlavenková, and Polish jazz masters Wacław Zimpel and Hubert Zemler. His performance with the MIT Wind Ensemble of Don Byron’s Clarinet Concerto, commissioned by MIT and released on Sunnyside Records, received a five-star Downbeat review.
In 2025, he and Eran Egozy premiered EV6, a cutting-edge concerto grosso for string orchestra (A Far Cry) and hundreds of cellphones; he also created new works for the PARTCH Ensemble and Kinetic. Other recent projects include Ki, a multi-clarinet piece realized in collaboration with minimalist legend Terry Riley; Poppy 88, a 2023 telematic live performance from 64 locations on 6 continents; the solo albums Pop Channel and Philip Glass: Best Out of Three; daily podcast music for acclaimed filmmaker Caveh Zahedi. His compositions and arrangements were featured throughout Ken Burns’ Vietnam, and his work was heard on Silkroad Ensemble’s Grammy-winning Sing Me Home. His latest album, Art Decade, will be released on Cantaloupe Music in October.