For over three decades, Amir Ziv has helped shape New York City's creative music scene as a drummer, composer, producer, and educator.
Born in Tel Aviv, Israel, Ziv began his training in Los Angeles under legendary drummers Joe Porcaro, Ralph Humphrey, and Efraín Toro before moving to New York City at the age of 20. There he studied closely with jazz legends Kenwood Dennard, Reggie Workman, Joe Chambers, and Cecil McBee — a lineage extending from studio performance and hard bop to the frontiers of free improvisation that continues to inform his work today.
Rooted in New York City's downtown creative music scene, Ziv has founded and led KOTKOT (w/ Marc Ribot, Cyro Baptista, and Shahzad Ismaily), DROID (w/ Tim LeFebvre, Yossi Fine, Jordan McLean, and Adam Holzman), RHYTHMOS (w/ Billy Martin and Cyro Baptista), POP IT! (w/Living Arts Apprenticeship Program faculty, students, and guests), and his solo work, Tympanum.
Beyond his own projects, Ziv has worked alongside Ornette Coleman, Lauryn Hill, Trey Anastasio, Grace Jones, John Zorn, Pizzicato Five, Erik Friedlander, Medeski Martin & Wood, Sean Lennon, Mark Feldman, Wayne Krantz, Carl Craig, DJ Logic, DJ Spooky, David Broza, Bennie Rietveld, and many others. He has appeared on some of the most renowned stages, including Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Blue Note, the Modern Drummer Festival, Central Park SummerStage, the Guggenheim Museum, Bonnaroo, the Woodstock reunion, and on international stages. His work with Ornette Coleman on New Vocabulary was described by The Wall Street Journal as “a valuable addition to Ornette Coleman's extraordinary discography.”
Teaching has always been inseparable from Ziv's artistic life. A longtime faculty member at The New School's Jazz and Contemporary Music program, he has played a central role in shaping its drum curriculum and served as Head of the Drum Department during a formative period in the program's development.
In 2005, Ziv founded Living Arts Apprenticeship Program (LAAP), an immersive, cross-disciplinary arts program in New York's Catskill Mountains built on the tradition of live-in apprenticeship. His students have gone on to work with top artists including Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Kendrick Lamar, Robert Glasper, and the cast of Hamilton on Broadway.
In 2010, Ziv co-founded System Dialing Records with longtime collaborator Jordan McLean under the mentorship of Jac Holzman, founder of Elektra Records.
“Rhythm is my compass. I perceive music’s elements—harmony, melody, phrasing, dynamics, texture—in the world around me. Nowhere is this more vivid than in nature. I’m fascinated by frequency, waveform, and the forces that shape the physical world—what I call Harmonic Rhythm: the natural interplay of patterns found at every scale, from heartbeats to tides.
Guided by a lifelong study of rhythm in all its forms, my work blends composition and improvisation, weaving the threads of lived experience—its beauty, turbulence, and impermanence—through a human loom, into sound. I draw from the textures of indigenous traditions, the raw resonance of industrial soundscapes, and the pattern logic embedded in nature’s design. I use acoustic percussion, analog synthesizers, digital sampling, and voice—often building my own instruments to explore new sonic territory.
Collaborating with artisans and engineers, I design one-of-a-kind musical devices, incorporate global instruments, and repurpose found objects. Sometimes the instrument itself becomes the message—like turning artillery shells into artifacts that carry a more constructive impact. My art is an invitation to listen more deeply, without preconceptions”