Evan Ziporyn (b. Chicago, Illinois, 14th December 1959) is an American composer of post-minimalist music and music for Balinese gamelans. He plays the clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, and metallophone, borrowing from classical music, avant-garde, and jazz. A member of Bang on a Can All-Stars and a former member of Steve Reich and Musicians, he is Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he directs Gamelan Galak Tika, an ensemble made up of 30 MIT students, staff and community members, in the study and performing of traditional and modern Balinese music.
He has released albums on Cantaloupe, New Albion, New World, and CRI Emergency Music. As a performer, he has recorded for Nonesuch, Sony Classical, and Point Music. He has also composed music for Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project, the American Composers Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Kronos Quartet, and the MIT Wind Ensemble.
Evan Ziporyn was named a 2007 USA Walker Fellow by United States Artists, an arts advocacy foundation dedicated to the support and promotion of America's top living artists.
He formerly lived in Somerville, Massachusetts and now lives in Lexington, Massachusetts. He is the brother of Brook Ziporyn.
