About Ethan Jodziewicz

Ethan Jodziewicz (pronounced “yo-JEH-vits”) is a bassist, producer, composer, improviser, and educator who believes that flexibility and creativity are the keys to making great music and human connection.

Currently based in Nashville, TN, Ethan grew up in the Pacific Northwest where he developed his musicianship playing upright and electric bass (fretted and fretless) in jazz combos, orchestras, contradance bands, and musical theater productions. While studying classical and jazz at Ithaca College in central New York, he connected with trailblazing fiddler Darol Anger and began touring with his acoustic jazz-grass quartet Mr. Sun, playing bass on their first two records: The People Need Light (2015) and Live At The Freight (2017).

Eventually transferring to the legendary Curtis Institute Of Music in Philadelphia, he had the opportunity to study bass with his childhood heroes Edgar Meyer and Hal Robinson, and to study improvisation with Ford Lallerstedt. While a student at Curtis, Ethan was invited by Béla Fleck to collaborate on a new record he was producing for mandolin phenom Sierra Hull. Upon graduating with a Bachelor of Music in 2015, Ethan set off on the road full-time supporting the album they had made, Weighted Mind (released 2016), on which he filled a fascinating and virtuosic role as Sierra’s musical duo partner. They toured the record for four years (2015-2018) throughout North America and Europe, and it received a nomination for Best Contemporary Folk Album at the 59th Grammy awards.

Following those four years, Ethan began touring with other artists in the greater new-acoustic scene. In 2018-2019, he played bass for The Milk Carton Kids on their All The Things North American tour. Between 2020-2024, he was a core member of Aoife O’Donovan’s Age Of Apathy band - which was captured on Live From The Hi-Fi (2022) and Tiny Desk Concerts (2022) - and also played shows supporting her Bullfrogs Croon and All My Friends albums.

Throughout this time, a lot of other recording projects and tours came about, including collaborations with jazz-oriented artists Jeff Coffin, Pascal Le Boeuf, and John Mailander’s Forecast, singer-songwriters Molly Tuttle, Lindsay Lou, Maya de Vitry, Courtney Hartman, and Emily Scott Robinson, new-acoustic instrumentalists Mark O’Connor, Jeremy Kittel, Time For Three, and Tony Trischka, orchestra/chamber groups including The Nashville Symphony, Nashville Ballet, Intersection, and Chatterbird, and some particularly fun sit-ins with Bruce Hornsby, David Grisman, Punch Brothers, Turtle Island Quartet, Kacey Musgraves, Del McCoury, and many more. In all these travels, Ethan has played bass on national TV (Jimmy Kimmel, Kelly Clarkson, Rachael Ray, CBS Saturday Morning, PBS Bluegrass Underground, Disney Celebrates America), National Public Radio (Live From Here, A Prairie Home Companion, Tiny Desk Concerts), and on the stages of Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Big Ears Festival, The Grand Ole Opry, and many others.

Equally at home in the studio as he is on stage, Ethan has thus far contributed to over 140 recordings, filling the roles of bassist/multi-instrumentalist, producer, engineer, mixer, arranger, and composer. His flexibility and creativity as a musician make him a sought-after session musician for anything from supporting lyrics with poignant bass-lines, to full-orchestra soundtracks, to free-improvisation. Recent production/mixing credits include Evan Horne’s Witness (2025), Lyle de Vitry’s Door Within A Dream (2024), and Maya de Vitry’s Violet Light (2022), each of which he engineered in his home studio, The Secret Woods. His self-produced 2015 duo recording with fiddler Tatiana Hargreaves (Ethan Jodziewicz & Tatiana Hargreaves) was a groundbreaking effort in translating Appalachian old-time fiddle bowings to the bass, and earned a 2016 Cubadisco nomination in the World Music category. His most recent band release is a four-way collaboration with Jeff Coffin, Bob Lanzetti, and Mark Raudabaugh entitled When Now (2026), exploring long-form trance-jazz landscapes. Ethan has been part of four Grammy nominated projects to date: Sierra Hull’s A Tip Toe High Wire (2025), Cody Fry’s Eleanor Rigby (2022), Mike Barnett’s Portraits In Fiddles (2017), and Sierra Hull’s Weighted Mind (2016).

Between recording sessions and live shows, Ethan keeps active as a private bass instructor and guest clinician. He has presented masterclasses and workshops at Berklee College of Music, The International Society of Bassists, RockyGrass Academy, Shasta Music Summit, Falling Waters Music Camp, Yukon Acoustic Music Workshop, South Puget Sound Community College, and Stringendo Summer Strings. He views teaching as an opportunity not just to help people improve their skills as a bassist, but also to grow as thinking, feeling, questioning, and loving human beings. His ultimate goal is to help people find their own voice through the bass. He focuses heavily on technique, improvisation, listening skills, and ergonomics/body-mechanics, which he has delved into deeply through his years of studying Alexander Technique and Iyengar yoga.

Always seeking balance in life, Ethan spends his non-musical time cooking, gardening, restoring and riding bicycles, hiking, camping, climbing, practicing Iyengar yoga, fixing his old car (which always seems to need something), and sometimes just doing nothing.

Ethan is a member of The Recording Academy, The International Society of Bassists, American String Teachers Association, and Americana Music Association. He uses Aguilar amplifiers/pickups/preamps, Sadowsky MetroLine electric basses, ISI Aceto-Violect upright bass pickups, Lanikai bass ukuleles, Grace Design preamps, Hipshot drop tuners, and Reunion Blues gig bags.

This bio was 100% written and edited by a REAL HUMAN, no AI was used.

(photos on this page taken by Lily Smith, Peter Jones, Joel Timmons, and Maya de Vitry)