Ethan Min Liao is a freshman at University High School in San Francisco, California. He studies composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, as well as classical piano, jazz piano, and the violin outside of the Conservatory. He has composed works for solo piano, string ensembles, big bands, and choruses. In 2025, Ethan was named the sole winner of the Jazz at Lincoln Center's 13th Annual Essentially Ellington Composition and Arranging Contest. In 2024, he won Downbeat Magazine's 47th Annual Student Music Award in three composition and arrangement categories and was featured in a Downbeat article. Ethan's original composition "He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" was recognized by the Laureate Gala Competition as a national winner. Ethan has participated in music programs at Tanglewood, Interlochen, and Stanford Jazz. Outside of music, his other interests include reading about history, playing tennis, and coming up with puns and wordplay.