Ian Sullivan is the Principal Timpanist of the New York City Ballet Orchestra. He is also the timpanist of the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra and has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, The Knights, and at the Tanglewood Music Center. He has appeared as guest principal timpanist with the New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra in Kuala Lumpur. He has appeared on numerous occasions at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Avery Fisher/David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall and Seiji Ozawa Hall, playing with various orchestras and ensembles.
As a soloist, Ian has performed major works in high-profile New York venues, including the Carnegie Hall premiere of Olivier Messiaen’s Des Canyons Aux Étoiles, under Maestro Robert Spano, and Andy Akiho’s Ligneous 1.
He has spent summers playing in Festival Orchestras in Verbier (Switzerland), Tanglewood Music Center, Pacific Music Festival (Japan) and the Aspen Music Festival. Ian is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and holds a BM from the University of Michigan and a MM from the Juilliard School. Ian spent 2012-2014 as a member of Ensemble ACJW and continues to work as a teaching artist and advisor for Carnegie Hall.
As an educator he has given masterclasses at The Juilliard School, NYU, and SUNY Purchase and is currently Associate Faculty at Columbia University.
