The Music Composer

The Grinnell experience is different for every student. For Dan Ehrlich ’14, that experience took him from the chemistry lab, to the recital hall, and eventually to graduate school in music composition.

“I’ve been a saxophonist since I was 7 years old,” Ehrlich remembers. “Someone just put the horn in my hands and I went for it.” With a strong interest in jazz, Ehrlich, a Canadian citizen raised in Ann Arbor, Mich., played the saxophone through high school, where he also sang in the choir.

However, when he arrived in Grinnell, Ehrlich decided not to focus solely on music, but to double-major in music and chemistry. “I like to work hard — especially when I feel I have a lot at risk,” Ehrlich says, and he initially found chemistry to satisfy that desire.

Pursuing a double major allowed him to pursue multiple interests — in part for the love of learning — even if a major doesn’t result in a career.

As his studies progressed, Ehrlich found himself returning again and again to his “two loves,” saxophone and voice. After spending a semester abroad in Italy studying only music, Ehrlich decided to devote his remaining time at Grinnell to music. “I wouldn’t say I lost interest in chemistry,” Ehrlich says. “I just realized I didn’t want to be a chemist.”

With his focus solely on music, Ehrlich completed two Mentored Advanced Projects (MAPs) in composition, one with Eric McIntyre, associate professor of music, and another with John Rommereim, Blanche Johnson Professor of Music. Over the course of these projects, Ehrlich completed a string quintet, a choral piece for the choir of his high school, and several works for solo voice. He also conducted the Grinnell Singers in the premiere of his original work, Hine ma tov.

After his graduation —  and after winning numerous honors, including the Steiner Award for Creativity in Music —  Ehrlich went on to graduate school. He currently studies composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he receives instruction from such distinguished clinicians as Anders Hillborg, Zoe Martlew, Oliver Knussen, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.

At the Royal Academy, Ehrlich is required to compose five to six pieces at once. “I was only working on one piece at a time at Grinnell, but I was also working on a paper, and a lab report, and research for another paper,” Ehrlich says. “So my splitting of my academic brain hasn’t changed, it’s just all focused on one thing now.”

Once he completes his studies at the Royal Academy, where will he go from there? Ehrlich isn’t sure. “I’m very much in the phase of realizing my potential as an artist and a person,” he says. Wherever life takes him — whether to the recital hall or even back to the chemistry lab — Ehrlich knows that he will use the skills he honed at Grinnell.

“You have to seek out your own opportunities,” Ehrlich says, “and Grinnell offers you those opportunities — MAPs, concerts, awards — and teaches you to seek them out.”