Ernst Mahle is a German-born Brazilian composer, conductor, and music educator who occupies the chair number 6 of the Academia Brasileira de Música. He is also a former vice-president of the Sociedade Brasileira de Música Contemporânea.

He was born on January 3^rd 1929 in Stuttgart and spent most of his childhood in Bluendz, Austria. Following the World War II, the city of Bluendz would host concerts by the most prominent students of the Conservatoire national de musique de Paris. Impressed by the dexterity of such players, Mahle decided to pursue piano and composition studies, and at age 20 he was accepted at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart in the class of Austrian composer Johann Nepomuk David. His studies in Stuttgart ended quickly, only one year later, when his family moved to São Paulo, Brazil, in 1951. Nevertheless, Mahle developed a special interest in modal music during this period after being introduced to the music of Béla Bartók.