Role

:

Composer  

Country

:

United States of America

Birth

:

May 22, 1953 in San Diego, CA

Genre

:

Avant-Garde

 

David Dunn is a renowned American composer, sound artist, and performer who has made significant contributions to the field of contemporary classical music. Born on December 23, 1953, in San Diego, California, Dunn grew up in a family that valued music and the arts. His father was a jazz musician, and his mother was a painter, which exposed him to different forms of artistic expression from an early age. Dunn's interest in music began when he was a child, and he started playing the guitar at the age of 12. He was also interested in electronics and built his first synthesizer when he was 16. After completing high school, Dunn attended the California Institute of the Arts, where he studied composition and electronic music with Morton Subotnick, James Tenney, and Harold Budd. In the early 1980s, Dunn moved to New York City, where he became involved in the downtown music scene. He collaborated with a diverse range of artists, including John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, and La Monte Young. During this time, Dunn also began to develop his own unique style of music, which combined elements of ambient, experimental, and electronic music. One of Dunn's most significant works is the series of compositions he created for the natural soundscape of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. In the early 1990s, Dunn spent several years living in the desert, where he recorded the sounds of the environment and used them as the basis for his compositions. The resulting works, which include "Muted Desert," "The Sound of Light in Trees," and "The Ecology of Perception," are considered groundbreaking in the field of environmental sound art. Dunn has also created numerous other works that explore the relationship between sound and the environment. His piece "Place" is a site-specific installation that uses sound to transform the acoustic properties of a space. The work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. In addition to his work as a composer and sound artist, Dunn is also an accomplished performer. He has performed his own works and collaborated with other musicians in a variety of settings, including concert halls, galleries, and outdoor spaces. He has also released several albums of his music, including "Autumn Song," "The Sound of Light in Trees," and "Muted Desert." Dunn's contributions to the field of contemporary classical music have been recognized with numerous awards and honors. In 1999, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition. He has also received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts. Dunn's work has been exhibited and performed at some of the most prestigious cultural institutions in the world, including the Venice Biennale, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. He has also been commissioned to create works for a variety of organizations, including the American Composers Forum, the Kronos Quartet, and the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. In conclusion, David Dunn is a highly influential figure in the world of contemporary classical music. His innovative approach to sound art and his exploration of the relationship between sound and the environment have had a profound impact on the field.

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