After a stint as an organist for a synagogue, he became a private teacher, publishing an extensive number of musical and theoretical articles.

His students included John Alden Carpenter, Wilhelm Middelschulte, Hugo Kaun, Fannie Bloomfield Zeisler, Eleanor Everest Freer, Glenn Dillard Gunn, Julius Gold,[1] Grace Chadbourne, Regina Watson, and Otto Wolf.

Ziehn refused to use Helmholtz's theory of harmonic structure based on physical phenomena.

He praised Anton Bruckner while condemning Hugo Riemann, Eduard Hanslick and Phillipp Spitta.

[2] His ideas were admired by Hans von Bülow, Hugo Kaun, Leopold Godowsky, Ferruccio Busoni, George P. Upton and others.