DAVID SIMONS is a composer and performer specializing in percussion,
Theremin, interactive sound installations, digital sampling, homemade instruments,
and World Music. Recordings of his works include 2 CDs on Tzadik “Fung Sha Noon”
(2009) and “Prismatic Hearing” (2004); 3 CDs with Gamelan Son of Lion, including
“Sonogram” (Innova 2008); “The Birth of George” opera w/Lisa Karrer (Harvestworks
2003); and with God is My Co-Pilot, Music for Homemade Instruments, Stockhausen
(Kurzwellen), Henry Brant, Shelley Hirsch, Denman Maroney, Laura Andel and many
others. David’s music for theater, dance and concert ensembles has brought him on
World tours. Awards and commissions include the Rockefeller Bellagio residency, NYFA
fellowships, NYSCA project funding, Aaron Copland Fund, Jerome Foundation, American
Composers Forum; and travel grants to collaborate with artists in Indonesia and
Estonia from Arts International and Soros’ Open Society Fund. Simons’ composition
“Odentity” for the Harry Partch instruments was premiered by Newband in 2007 and is
featured on his Tzadik CD “Fung Sha Noon”. David recently premiered a work for
dancers triggering sound with interactive webcam for the 2015 New Media Art&Sound
Summit, Austin TX; in 2014 created an interactive sound and projected image
installation with John Morton for the Hudson River Museum, and the Chen Zhen big
drum sculpture with Lisa Karrer at Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Arts;
premiered 3 compositions of interactive music at the Prospectives 2012 Digital Art
Festival, Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. In March 2013 Roulette performing space in
Brooklyn presented a retrospective of David’s compositions, SIMONS @60. Other recent
premieres include 2015 “InnaGadda Detective” for drum and radio broadcasts; 2009
“GONG(hump)ing Ceremony” for gamelan, and “CIPHER” for string quartet, which is
included on the 2010 Innova CD “The NYFA Collection.” David is a graduate of
California Institute of the Arts (BFA 1974) where he studied composition with James
Tenney, Harold Budd, Morton Subotnick, and Earle Brown. He also has an MA in Media
Studies from The New School (MA 2013). His writings on music and sound are published
in Radiotexte(Semiotexte#16), EAR magazine, and Soundings. David teaches
Cross-Cultural Perspectives at Fairleigh Dickinson University in NJ, was Teaching
Assistant in Media Studies at the New School, guest lecturer in music and
composition at Ramapo College and SUNY Binghamton, and has taught instrument
building and gamelan at Kripalu Yoga Center (Stockbridge, Mass), Avampato Science
Museum (W.Virginia), Sternberg Museum (Hays, Kansas), at elementary schools in
Paterson NJ, for Young Audiences in NYC, and for the Brooklyn Philharmonic.
