Ian Antonio’s breadth of experience — concertizing across four continents with a wide variety of chamber ensembles, orchestras, experimental rock bands, avant-garde theatre companies, and as a soloist, conductor, and educator — has led him to develop a unique sound and approach to both performing and teaching.

Antonio is a member/director of Yarn/Wire, Wet Ink, and Talujon three of the country’s most prominent new music ensembles. With these ensembles and others, he has performed at prestigious venues across the globe, including Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Edinburgh International Festival, Barbican Centre, and Shanghai Symphony Hall.

Hailed as “mesmerizing and dynamic” by the New York Times , the piano and percussion quartet Yarn/Wire is known for the energy and precision it brings to performances of today’s most adventurous music. In addition to concertizing worldwide, the ensemble has vastly expanded the repertoire for its instrumental combination, premiering dozens of new works. Since 2016, Yarn/Wire has administered the Yarn/Wire Institute, an intensive summer educational and performance program.

Wet Ink, hailed as 2018’s “Ensemble of the Year” by the New York Times , most commonly performs as an octet comprising a core group of composer-performers that collaborate in a band-like fashion. Writing, improvising, preparing, and touring pieces together over long stretches of time, the ensemble is in demand at both domestic and international venues for its ability to “combine striking stylistic and aesthetic assurance with technical perfection.” (Dissonanz Switzerland)

Ian is also a member of the percussion ensemble Talujon. Described by the New York Times as possessing an “edgy, unflagging energy,” the ensemble has been championing percussive music for more than two decades. The ensemble advocates for new percussive works from a diverse array of voices, having brought new pieces by composers Julia Wolfe, Dewa Alit, Ushio Torakai, Henry Threadgill, and Alvin Lucier, among many others, to life. In addition to these new works, the ensemble performs, and occasionally unearths, classic works from the literature, such as a long-lost work by Lou Harrison.

Antonio’s playing can be heard on over 40 albums for the Nonesuch, Kairos, Warp, Tzadik, Carrier, Social Registry, Populist, Wergo, and Distributed Objects record labels, among others. He has performed with Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf, International Contemporary Ensemble, SEM Ensemble, Zs, Tyondai Braxton, Peter Evans, Albany Symphony, Boston Symphony, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and worked with composers, conductors, and soloists such as Seigi Ozawa, Kurt Masur, Charles Dutoit, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yefim Bronfman, Helmut Lachenmann, Enno Poppe, John Adams, and Kaija Saariaho.

Ian is an Assistant Professor of Percussion at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance, in Ann Arbor, MI.