Evan Gardner was born in the United States and studied composition at the Oberlin Conservatory, and then at the Norwegian State Academy of Music from 2003 to 2005 with Henrik Hellstenius and Olav Anton Thommessen. In 2006, he received a fellowship to study with Fabien Levy in Berlin, and the following year he earned a degree in composition from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich.

His Lights Out for Orchestra was a finalist for the Gaudeamus Prize in 2006. That same year, Aurora released an album of orchestral music that included works by Gardner performed by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra. He composed the score for the Norwegian short film Sniffer, which won a Palme d’or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2006.

Gardner studied with Beat Furrer and Bernhard Lang at the Impuls Festival in Graz in 2007 and participated in the Voix Nouvelles composition session at the Abbaye de Royaumont in 2008.

He has received commissions from the Ensemble intercontemporain, the Arditti Quartet, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, and for the pianist Kristian Lindberg.