IAN GOTTLIEB is a Los Angeles-based composer and cellist whose music grapples with nostalgia, eclecticism, mysticism, folk tradition, and spirituality. His music has been performed by ensembles and artists including Ensemble dal Niente, Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Sandbox Percussion, Triple Helix, Hilary Summers, Antico Moderno, and Palaver Strings. Recent commissions include works for Contemporaneous, Arcomusical, and arx duo. His work has received support from New York State Council for the Arts, The Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and ASCAP.

Ian is a founding member of Invisible Anatomy, a New York-based composer/performer ensemble described as “sometimes haunting sometimes hilarious and consistently mesmerizing ” (I Care If You Listen) and “otherworldly and uncanny” (The Village Voice).

As a cellist, Ian is an avid performer of music both new and old, having performed with orchestral, chamber, and contemporary ensembles including Debut Orchestra and American Youth Symphony under the baton of John Williams and David Newman, Contemporaneous, and Palaver Strings, in venues such as Boston Symphony Hall, Dorothy Chandler, National Sawdust, Roulette, and (Le) Poisson Rouge. He has participated in masterclasses and intensive chamber music seminars with Pieter Wispelwey, the Muir String Quartet, and the Vermeer String Quartet, and has studied the chamber works of Gyorgy Ligeti under the tutelage of Martin Bresnick. Gottlieb has also performed with numerous pop artists, including tours with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Air Traffic Controller at major venues such as the House of Blues (Los Angeles), the Coliseum (Hampton, VA), Mohegan Sun (CT), and the Verizon Arena (NH)

Ian is deeply committed to collaborative engagement in local communities, teaching young musicians and finding innovative presentation formats for classical music beyond the concert hall. He has taught composition and cello at The Kaufman Music Center's Special Music School, Bridge Boston Charter School, GYBSO Intensive Community Project (ICP), Harmony Project, and Renaissance Arts Academy, and has organized events such as the Bach to Funk charity concert series in Boston, the Song Mural Project, a public arts initiative inviting the community to draw a mural of song in chalk in public spaces, and FUNHOUSE, an immersive presentation of art installations and performances.

A Los Angeles native, Gottlieb studied classical and jazz cello at the Crossroads School for the Arts and Sciences. He holds a B.M. in Theory and Composition and Cello Performance from Boston University, Magna Cum Laude, where he studied with Marc Johnson, and an M.M. in composition from The Yale School of Music, where he studied with David Lang, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Martin Bresnick. Ian just completed a 9-month residency in São Paulo, Brazil under the auspices of a Fulbright Scholarship, collaborating with ensemble Peixe Seco, a collective of musicians dedicated to finding new cultural contexts for traditional Brazilian instruments.