The compositions of Marshall Estrin combine complex musical ideas with rich textures and highly nuanced structural elements. A composer at Juilliard, Estrin’s music emphasizes the dramatic power of instrumental and vocal music and forges new pathways of expression within 21st-century musical language. His persuasive and vivid compositions compel the listener to perceive his work not only viscerally but on a narrative and philosophical level as well.
Estrin’s works have been performed throughout the United States, Europe and Asia by performers including the Arditti Quartet, Zlatomir Fung, The Juilliard Orchestra, and others. Mr. Fung recorded Estrin’s Fantasia Carmèn for Signum Classics in 2025.
In addition to composition, Estrin has pursued extensive musicological research and is particularly conversant in 19th and 20th-Century European and American music. He has lectured at the Juilliard School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a variety of music topics such as “Stravinsky and the Birth of 20th-Century Music: Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring” and “Mathematical Music: The Revolt of Serialism.” He is also a published critic and teacher and lecturer of composition, music theory, and music history.
Beyond his work as a musician, Estrin is a scholar in Ancient Greek and Latin and a three-time First Prize Winner of the New York Classical Club’s Ancient Greek and Latin Recitation Contest at Columbia University. He has taught Ancient Greek and Latin privately for the past several years.
