Photography by Elizabeth Stenholt
Ethan Jankowski is an emerging American composer, conductor, and vocalist, whose music can be described as deliberate, conceptually sound, and explorative through the tangible and the abstract. Once intending to become an author, Ethan continues a passion for the literary style in a musical medium - commonly exploring observations of concept, art, the human condition, and the metaphysical to create a unique narrative of perspective and exploration.
This summer, Ethan will be attending the Mostly Modern Festival as part of the composition program there, composing a new work, [Oh,] Snap for the Dior Quartet. In recent collaboration with friend and saxophonist Emily McGovern, Ethan was commissioned to compose a new solo work for alto saxophone - Peripeteia. The work premiered on February 23rd at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Jankowski’s compositions have been performed and recorded by ensembles and artists such as Missing Piece (Dan Galat and Kelly Quesada), Shi-An Costello, the Fullerton Four, Jennie Oh Brown, members of Picosa, and the Lucerna Quartet in London (Nicole Micheli, Sophia Elger, Emilija Auškalnyté, & Rosemary Ball).
Hailing from the northwest Chicago suburbs, Ethan will soon be pursuing a Master of Music Composition at The Juilliard School, to study with award-winning composer Valerie Coleman. He also holds a B.M. in Music Composition from Elmhurst University. There he studied with John Dorhauer, as well as Dr. Mark Harbold and Dr. David DeVasto.
Ethan has had the wonderful opportunity to learn under the baton of some of the most prolific conductors in their field. Most recently, he studied under the tutelage of the renowned Dr. Donald Portnoy as an Associate Conductor at the Conductors Institute of South Carolina, America’s premiere conducting institute. As well, he has participated in the Cascade Conducting Masterclass led by Maestra Sarah Ioannides.
During his time at Elmhurst, Ethan was mentored by Taka Matsunaga. Maestro Matsunaga currently leads the Elmhurst Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as leading the Midwest Philharmonic Orchestra. Ethan was invited by Matsunaga to join the MPO’s Young Conductors Workshop as a guest student conductor at the 2022 Illinois Music Education Conference.
Ethan loves to hike, bike, and travel as much as he can, working towards hiking through all of the national parks in the US. He had the opportunity to study abroad in New Zealand, from where he has many fond memories (most especially of the cats he saw). Ethan is a classically trained vocalist, as well as a novice woodwind player. He loves cats (could you tell?) - growing up with 3 in his childhood home. He is also a proud recipient of a fourth-place participation award in his 5th-grade spelling bee, as well as a runner-up trophy from his K-12 karate class sparring tournament (he dropped from the class soon after the fame went to his head).