Music

Biography

Jason Ihnat is an accomplished performer, teacher, composer, and arranger. He has had the privilege of performing alongside Grammy-winning artists such as Andrea Bocelli (2024), Paul Shaffer (2024), and Johnny Mathis (2022). Additionally, he has performed with the Detroit Opera Orchestra, the Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings, and is a tenured member of the Flint Symphony Orchestra. Ihnat also frequently performs with the Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra, Dearborn Symphony Orchestra, International Symphony Orchestra, Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, and the Michigan Philharmonic.

Ihnat serves as a part-time lecturer at the Eastern Michigan University School of Music, and he maintains teaching studios at Novi and L’Anse Creuse High Schools. He has also been a guest instructor for the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Civic Youth Ensembles. His compositions and arrangements have been performed at universities and high schools across Michigan and the United States.

Mr. Ihnat has a celebrated, decades-long career in the marching percussion world where he was a performer for the DCI World Champion Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps in 1998, was on the Cadets percussion staff for the winning of two Fred Sanford High-Percussion Trophies and three World Championships, and is now the Front Ensemble Coordinator for the Boston Crusaders, a position he’s held since 2017. Ihnat was also the director and co-founder of the two-time World Champion WGI ensemble, Eastside Fury. In recognition of his contributions to the winter percussion community, he was inducted into the Michigan Color Guard Circuit Hall of Fame in 2019.

Mr. Ihnat earned his Master of Music in Music Composition from Eastern Michigan University, where he studied composition with renowned composer Dr. Anthony Iannaccone and percussion with Professor John Dorsey. He also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI, where he studied percussion with Keith Claeys.

When he is not performing or teaching, Jason resides in Sterling Heights, MI with his wife, Laura, their two children, two cats, and a fish.