Ethan Gurwitz (b. 2000) is a composer, French horn player, and conductor based in Austin, Texas.
Ethan’s music has been performed by collegiate, professional, and community ensembles from Texas to Scotland, and he has accepted commissions from the Metropolitan Winds, Horns United, the SMU Meadows Wind Ensemble, esteemed Broadway musician and recording artist Ron Wilkins, and budding hornist Shea Kells-Murphy, among others. He has also collaborated with Sandbox Percussion, the 2023 EAMA Resident String Quartet, Soprano Bethany Jelinek, librettist Emma Bolton, GRAMMY-winning recording engineer John Kilgore, and Horn Choirs of the University of Texas and Southern Methodist University, among others.
He was selected for the 2021 International Trombone Festival Composers Workshop, won the 2021 Alpha Chi Edwin W. Gaston, Jr. National Scholarship, was a finalist for the 2021 and 2022 ASCAP Morton Gould Composition Contest, and has received recognition in multiple other composition contests. He was named a 2023 Nadia Boulanger Fellow and a 2024 Shea Family Fellow to the European American Musical Alliance in Paris, France. His composition instructors include Drs. Omar Thomas, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Donald Grantham, Lane Harder, Xi Wang, and Robert J. Frank.
In May 2024, he graduated with a master’s in music composition from the Butler School of Music (University of Texas at Austin). In 2022, he received two degrees in music composition (BM) and applied mathematics (BS) at SMU, graduating Summa Cum Laude and with recognition as Standard Bearer for both the Meadows School of the Arts and Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences. As a student at UT Butler and formerly Southern Methodist University, he has participated in both Wind Ensembles, Symphony Orchestras, Operas, and French Horn Studios – and he has studied horn with Mr. Gregory Hustis, Alex Kienle, and Patrick Hughes.
In June 2024, he performed as co-principal horn with the UT Wind Ensemble at Carnegie Hall. In October 2021, he was a featured soloist with the SMU Meadows Symphony Orchestra alongside renowned Hollywood musician James Thatcher and two other SMU students. He was a member of the winning horn quartet at the 2023 International Horn Society Mid-South Collegiate Horn Ensemble Competition. In June 2022, he performed as a part of the International D-Day Memorial Service with the SMU Mustang Band in Normandy, France. In July 2023, he sang in the EAMA Chorale at the Institut de France in Paris, France.
In 2023, he began a horn teaching position at Westlake HS, in Austin, TX. For the 2023-24 school year, he worked as a Graduate Research Assistant for the UT Butler Composition Department. As a part of this position, he served as President and Coordinator of CLUTCH Committee, leading four performances of new works by UT composers. And formerly, he served as president of the SMU Meadows Emerging Sounds Committee, featuring semesterly performances of new works by SMU composers.
