about

Ezra Gans is a performer and composer currently residing in New York. His work straddles the worlds of historically informed performance and experimental improvisation, interweaving instruments and musical techniques of the past and present to create music that examines our relationship with history. Aside from performing on bassoons, clarinets, and recorders of various shapes and sizes, Ezra incorporates live electronics, spoken word, and even, on occasion, fun costumes into his works.

He is a member of slapslap, a performance-art-rock band consisting of two electric bassoons and two drummers, and BRIGE, a group alternatingly known as “a multi-disciplinary experiment in radical geometry” and “just four friends.”

Ezra’s debut solo album, Callings, a dichord of improvisations for bassoon, alto clarinet, and live electronics, was released in October 2023, and he can also be heard on BRIGE’s This album was recorded in Jane’s garage and slapslap’s slapslEP and Bad Idea, Good Execution.

Ezra holds a Bachelors of Music in Bassoon Performance from the University of Michigan, a Masters of Music in Performance and Composition from the New School, and a Masters of Music in Historical Performance Practice from The Juilliard School, where he studied historical woodwinds and the creative decision-making processes of musicians past and present. His principal teachers have included Dominic Teresi, Nina Stern, Jeffrey Lyman, Joseph Gascho, Mark Kirschenmann, Janet Grice, Levy Lorenzo, and Nathan Davis.