Aidan Gold is a composer, conductor, and percussionist. His music is widely varied, but focuses on musical characterization, narrative and storytelling, and performer agency / interaction. He is fascinated with the idea of music as a social act – a game or ritual that we perform to allow us to communicate and connect with one another, defining, challenging, and expanding our individual and collective identities.

Gold is currently pursuing a DMA in Composition at the Juilliard School. He has a MM in Composition from USC, and a BM in Composition and a BS in Computer Science from the University of Washington. Gold’s composition mentors include Andrew Norman, Nina Young, Frank Ticheli, and Huck Hodge. His music has been performed by the Seattle Symphony, the Juilliard Orchestra, the JACK Quartet, and others. Gold’s music has also won awards including the Arthur Friedman and Palmer Dixon prizes.

Gold is also a conductor and is passionate about working closely with performers to innovate methods of performance and connections between musicians. He was the assistant music director of the Student Symphony Orchestra of USC from 2020-2021, where he created and led an improvisatory ensemble that explored new methods of making music live remotely.