Ethan Ahmad is a passionate performer and educator who has enjoyed a wide diversity of experience throughout his career as a percussionist. Originally from Texas, he got to tour the east coast and Midwest in high school as a member of the Spartans Drum & Bugle Corps snare line, and that proved to be a pivotal time in his musical development. The following year, he went on to march his first season of indoor percussion with the Imperial Percussion Theatre and decided that music would be a part of the rest of his life.

Still a little uncertain about what that might actually look like, he entered his hometown’s Rice University as a double major but quickly became enthralled with the sound of the world class orchestra there. With this newfound perspective and goal to play professionally with an orchestra, he travelled west to the University of Southern California, where he studied with the LA Phil’s Jim Babor and Joseph Pereira. While there, he was fortunate enough to get an experience he thought he had missed out on for good - playing with a youth orchestra.

Los Angeles at that time had two very high level youth orchestras that in fact were mostly populated with undergraduate and graduate students from the city’s universities and conservatory - the YMF Debut Orchestra and the American Youth Symphony. Some of the amazing people that the orchestras collaborated with included John Williams, Danny Elfman, and David Newman. Over the summers, Ethan gratefully returned to Texas to attend the Round Top Music Festival and UH’s Texas Music Festival. 

After finishing at TMF, it was off to New York City to begin graduate school at Juilliard, where he studied primarily with the Metropolitan Opera’s Greg Zuber. As a member of the orchestra, the contemporary ensembles, and the percussion ensemble, Ethan got incredible opportunities to perform in halls like Carnegie, David Geffen, and Alice Tully. Juilliard (and New York generally) widened his exposure to musical traditions from around the world, and he was so fortunate to get to study privately with the one and only Glen Velez. A yearly tradition of auditioning for Tanglewood finally came to a close his first year there, when he was accepted as a fellow.

Upon graduation from Juilliard, Ethan returned to LA to pursue a year of Graduate Certificate studies at USC. That September, he won 3 out of 4 auditions in a day and was named runner-up for the fourth, becoming the Principal Percussionist of both AYS and Debut, the Principal Timpanist of Debut, and the Assistant Principal Timpanist of AYS. Later in the year, he got to perform Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in an unforgettable concert cycle. Another yearly tradition came to an end when the dream of getting into Music Academy of the West finally came true, and he is so thankful for the wonderful summer he got to spend in Santa Barbara studying with the Seattle Symphony’s Michael Werner.

Ethan is now based out of Houston, TX, where he enjoys a blend of performance, teaching, and recording. He has performed with the Houston Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Omaha Symphony, and the New World Symphony.

Recently, he teamed up with Grammy-Award winning producer Danny Jones to form the YouTube channel Percussive Productions - an online destination for students and educators who are looking for, but might not otherwise have access to, professionals with our level of experience and expertise.