Marty Ehrlich began his musical career in St. Louis while at University City High School (c/o 1970), performing and recording with the Human Arts Ensemble. He graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1977, where his teachers included George Russell, Jaki Byard, Joseph Maneri, Gunther Schuller, and Joseph Allard.
Since moving to New York City in 1978, he has performed with a who’s who of contemporary composers including Muhal Richard Abrams, Bobby Bradford, Anthony Braxton, John Carter, Andrew Cyrille, Jack DeJohnette, Anthony Davis, Mark Dresser, Marianne Faithful, Don Grolnick, Chico Hamilton, Julius Hemphill, Andrew Hill, Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, Leroy Jenkins, John Lindberg, Myra Melford, Hankus Netsky, James Newton, Bobby Previte, James Wedman, and John Zorn. He appears on over a100 recordings with these and other composers.
His honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship in Composition, the Peter Ivers Visiting Artist Residency at Harvard University, numerous commissioning grants, Clarinetist of the Year from the Jazz Journalist Association, and a Distinguished Alumni award from NEC. He is currently an Associate Professor of Music at Hampshire College.