Ethan Cavanac (b. 2003) is a composer, performer, and improviser from Charlton, Massachusetts. He is currently a senior at Harvard College, where he concentrates in Music and Philosophy.

He has studied composition with Chaya Czernowin, Michael Gandolfi, John Harbison, and Julian Anderson, and violin and viola with Joel Smirnoff, Malcolm Lowe, and Genevieve Strosser. 

Recent and upcoming projects include the premiere of his commissioned orchestral work cloud of unknowing with the Apollo Ensemble of Boston; new works for loadbang at Divergent Studio and the United States premiere of his Blodgett Composition Prize–winning string quartet MIXED SIGNALS— by the Parker Quartet in October 2026. He will also be featured at Bang on a Can at MASS MoCA this summer and will be in residence as a fellow at TAK LAB in New York City with the TAK Ensemble.

Cavanac has attended the Valencia International Music Festival and the Darmstadt Ferienkurse, where he studied with Georges Aperghis and Genevieve Strosser and performed in Tyshawn Sorey’s Autoschediasms improvisation orchestra. 

His honors include the 2026 Louis Sudler Award, the 2025 Robert Levin Award—Harvard’s highest honor for an undergraduate musician— and first prize in the Bach Society Orchestra Composition Competition. Additional distinctions include the Bohemians Club Award for Composition, the Davison Fellowship for Travel in Music, and recognition from the American Viola Society and National YoungArts.

Cavanac has appeared as a performer across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Recent highlights include Hans Tutschku’s einst mit dir at the Goethe-Institut Boston with soprano Tony Arnold and performances at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse. He is also active as an improviser, often performing on instruments of his own construction, including CAN.space (2025) for four amplified Diet Dr. Pepper cans.