David Dunn

Last Name: 
Dunn
First Name: 
David

David Dunn is a composer and sound artist who has worked in a wide variety of audio media inclusive of traditional and experimental music, installations for public exhibitions, video and film soundtracks, radio broadcasts, and bioacoustic research. His compositions and wildlife sound recordings have appeared in hundreds of international forums, concerts, broadcasts, and exhibitions. In past years Dunn has lectured and/or performed at venues such as SoundCulture (Japan), Beyond Music Festival (USA), Santa Fe International Electroacoustic Music Festival, Ars Electronica (Austria), the Styrian Autumn Festival (Austria), L'Immagine Elletronica Festival (Italy), the Institute for New Media (Germany), New Music Across America, Center for Contemporary Art (Santa Fe), Composer to Composer Festival (Telluride), Santa Fe Institute, Experimenta Festival (Argentina), Cranbrook Art Academy, Instituto Torcuato Ditella (Argentina), feature radio broadcasts throughout the world, guest composer residencies at numerous American universities, and wildlife field recording expeditions in North America, South America, and Southern Africa. From 1970-74 he was assistant to the American composer Harry Partch and remained active as a performer in the Harry Partch Ensemble for over a decade. Dunn has also served as Vice-President of the International Synergy Institute, as a creative consultant to a variety of major media and Hollywood studios (such as Disney, Epcot, Turner Broadcasting and MGM), and as co-producer of workshops for Hollywood executives at the American Film Institute. He has also held a variety of academic positions over the past 30 years. Most recently he was a professor in the Contemporary Music Program of the College of Santa Fe where he co-designed its current curriculum. Presently he is President and Program Director of the Art and Science Laboratory and a member of the Institute for Conservation Studies. During 2002-2004, Dunn was artist-in-residence at several institutions including the Art Technology Center at the University of New Mexico. Dunn is the author of several books, including Listening at the Edges: In Air, In Water, In Earth, In Trees, and a CDROM entitled Music, Language, and Environment. He is also the editor of an anthology on Harry Partch, and of a book on the pioneers of Electronic Art. His works are published and distributed by numerous international presses and have been anthologized in over 50 journals and anthologies with translations into several foreign languages. Dunn is the recipient of a variety of awards and grants including the NEA (4), Rockefeller Foundation (3), Langlois Foundation (2), McCune Foundation (2), Ford Foundation, Delle Foundation, Tides Foundation, New Mexico Arts Division, various Meet the Composer grants (4), academic research grants, and travel grants from the Japan Foundation and the United States Embassy to Argentina. In addition he has received numerous commissions from major institutions such as the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia and the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Dunn was the recipient of the prestigious Alpert Award for Music in 2005. Current projects include sonification research of deterministic chaotic systems with physicist James P. Crutchfield, research into the bioacoustics of bark beetles, and research of ultrasonic audio phenomena in both the natural and human environments.