Ethan Frederick Greene was born on October 10, 1982 in South Orange, New Jersey. He grew up playing trumpet under the tutelage of Calvin Hughes – former sideman to Billie Holliday and Coleman Hawkins – at the Newark Community School of the Arts. As a soloist in the South Orange Middle School Chorus, Ethan sang soprano on such hits as “Wind Beneath my Wings”, “The SOMS School Song” and “Celebration”. After a devastating voice change, Ethan began to write music. Thus spawned a life of composition.
Ethan’s work has been performed by the Houston Grand Opera, the East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, Opera Southwest, Juventas New Music, 20/21 Ensemble, and other ensembles and performers in the U.S. and abroad. He has received awards and performances from SEAMUS, SCI, Opera Southwest, and NACUSA. Ethan is an avid collaborator with visual artists, filmmakers and documentarians, lending music to television shows and films such as This American Life, The Conspirator: the Plot to Kill Lincoln, and Night Sky. Ethan has developed sound for the video games of Tiger Style Games, and curated shows such as SoundSpace, a mobile concert of new music at the Blanton Museum of Art, and Around Hear, a concert series in Houston area public parks. In his spare time, Ethan plays trumpet and melodica in the band Linen Closet.
Ethan received his B.A. in Music and Pre-med studies from Amherst College (2004), M.Mus. in Composition from Rice University (2009), and is currently working toward his D.M.A. in Composition at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches courses in electronic music and ear-training. Principal teachers include Russell Pinkston, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Arthur Gottschalk, Karim Al-Zand, Kurt Stallmann, Eric Sawyer and Bruce Diehl.