Described as a "composer of facility and imagination, the kind to whom both performers and audiences respond" (The New York Times), composer Ethan Wickman's (b. 1973) music has been performed by soloists and ensembles in venues in the U.S. and around the world. He has received grants and commissions from the Barlow Endowment, Meet the Composer, the American Composers Forum, the Wisconsin Music Teachers Association, the Utah Arts Festival, the San Antonio Opera Guild, and Chicago's Music In The Loft where he was the 2014-15 Composer-In-Residence. He was awarded the Jacob Druckman prize for his orchestral work Night Prayers Ascending at the Aspen Music Festival, the Harvey Phillips Award for his work Summit from the International Tuba Euphonium Association, first place in the Utah Arts Festival Chamber Commission Competition, and was a finalist in the 25th annual ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Orchestral Composition Competition. He has received fellowships from the Aspen Music Festival, the Norfolk Contemporary Music Workshop/Yale Summer School of Music, the Wellesley Composers Conference, the American Composers Orchestra/Earshot New Music Readings, and from the U.S. State Department as a Fulbright Fellow in Madrid, Spain. His works have been performed by such ensembles as the Aspen Concert Orchestra, the Avalon String Quartet, the Soli Ensemble, the Newton Symphony, the Gryphon Trio, Flexible Music, the Minneapolis Trio, the Novo Ensemble, Ensemble 61, the Post-Haste Reed Duo, Zeitgeist, and by many performers at venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and at universities and concert halls both domestic and international. Recent recordings have garnered critical acclaim as "the most attractive new string quartet I have heard in a long while" (Fanfare), "epic and dreamy" (The New York Times), "absorbing" (American Record Guide), and possessing "stunning breadth and poise" (Time Out Chicago).
Wickman holds a DMA in composition from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, with additional degrees from Boston University (MM) and Brigham Young University (BM). Formerly on the faculties of Indiana University-South Bend and the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, he is Professor of Music Composition and Theory at the University of Texas at San Antonio. In addition, from 2015-2020 he was Executive Director of the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University.