David Simons

David Simons composes music for theater, dance, film, installations, and concert ensembles. His unusual collection of sounds from self-built and non-European instruments combines with digital sampling technologies to create a unique pan-cultural music. He has devised his own method of using the Theremin as a Midi controller. David is a graduate of the California Institute of the Arts (BFA 1974), studying composition with Earle Brown, Morton Subotnick, James Tenney, Harold Budd; percussion teachers include John Bergamo (Cal Arts), Paul Price (Manhattan School Of Music), and Alan Dawson (Berklee). David has researched and performed music from many of the world’s cultures, and furthered his music studies in Bali, Bangkok and Seoul. As a founding member of the FUTURE PRIMITIVE ENSEMBLE his pieces were heard live on radio and in concert throughout the U.S. He has also performed on tour in Java, Bali, Korea, Japan, Eastern and Western Europe, Canada, Cuba and Hawaii. For many years he has been a member of Gamelan Son of Lion and Music for Homemade Instruments in New York, both of which regularly premiere his works.

David has received numerous awards and grants, including a 2003 Rockefeller Foundation residency at Bellagio, Italy to compose music for NEWBAND and their collection of Harry Partch instruments. In 1998 American Composers Forum and Jerome Foundation funded the Gamelan Son of Lion’s commission for David to write Music for Theremin and Gamelan, and an Arts International travel grant and Asian Cultural Council grant enabled him to perform it in Bali (2000); other awards include Harvestworks Artist-In-Residence (‘95 Project Residency, ‘89 computer music Programming Residency); Canada Council Visiting Foreign Artist (‘92) for sound installation at Art Metropole in Toronto; Composer-in-Residence at American Dance Festival (‘91); NY Foundation for the Arts Composition Fellowship (‘90, 2000); ASCAP Special Awards (1987-02); and several Meet the Composer commissions. The American Music Center’s recovery grant ‘Music Liberty Initiative for NY’, was awarded in 2002. The Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation sponsored a teaching and instrument building residency in 2005 with artist Ken Butler, Lisa Karrer and David Simons at the Avampato Museum in Charleston, West Virginia. In 2009 David curated the INTERACTIVE MUSIC FESTIVAL on the Coney Island Boardwalk for Make Music NY, produced by Manhattan New Music Project with support from the NYC Dept of Cultural Affairs.

In collaboration with Lisa Karrer, David has received Artslink and Arts International awards for projects in Estonia (95-03), and the Mary Flagler Cary Commissioning Grant to compose their chamber opera "The Birth of George" (‘96). This opera was produced by Harvestworks and American Opera Projects and had its workshop premiere at La Mama in ‘97, supported by the Jerome Foundation and Greenwall Foundation, and an Aaron Copland Recording grant was received in ‘98 to make a CD, released on TELLUS in 2003. David's CD on TZADIK "Prismatic Hearing" was released in 2004. His second TZADIK CD "Fung Sha Noon" was released Fall 2009.

Other recordings include MUSIC FOR WORDS PERHAPS by Denman Maroney on Innova 2010; SONOGRAM by Gamelan Son of Lion on Innova 2008; THE HENRY BRANT COLLECTION vol.9 on Innova 2007; AURAL SHOEHORNING by Barbara Benary on New World Records 2006; Laura Andel's DOBLE MANO 2009 and IN-TENSION 2005; Bob Hoffnar's NEW MUSIC for PEDALSTEEL GUITAR '05; BENDING THE GENDING, Gamelan Son of Lion 2002; PICK OF THE LITTER, Music For Homemade Instruments 2000; FLIGHT OF WHISPERS, Jason Kao Hwang CRI 1999; FIELDS AMAZE, Patrick Grant 1997; NEW GAMELAN NEW YORK, Son Of Lion 1995; GOD IS MY CO-PILOT, Knitting Factory Works 1993 ; CHUNK/LIVE AT THE KNITTING FACTORY VOL.2, A&M Records 1989; A DECADE OF DEBRIS, Music For Homemade Instruments 1989; SHELLEY HIRSCH / SINGING, Apollo Records Holland 1988; SHORTWAVE/ KURZWELLEN by Stockhausen with the Negative Band, Finnadar 1976. David's writings on music and sound are published in EAR Magazine and Radiotexte (Semiotexte 1994).

In theater David has composed music for plays by Pinter, Hawthorne, Dostoyevsky, Poe, Jarry, New Peking Opera, Arabian Nights, The Epic of Gilgamesh, and children’s theater. His scores for choreographers have been performed at the Merce Cunningham Dance Studio, DTW, Riverside Dance Festival, St. Mark’s Church, PS 122, Franklin Furnace, DIA Art Foundation, Yellow Springs Institute, Fashion Moda and the Port Authority Bus Terminal. Some of the choreographers David has written for and worked with include Sin Cha Hong, Douglas Dunn, Ronald K. Brown and Evidence, Colin Conner, Lauri Nagel, Harry Streep, Erin Martin, Anita Feldman Tap Dance, Wendy Osserman, Laura Shapiro, Nadine Helstroffer, Deena Burton, Islene Pindar's Balinese American Dance Theater, Tjokorda Gde Arsa Artha, Man Hong Kang, Eun Me Ahn. Other credits as multi-instrumentalist include: NY Shakespeare Festival’s THE TEMPEST directed by Lee Bruer; JUAN DARIAN by Elliot Goldenthal and Julie Taymor; MARCO POLO opera workshop by Tan Dun; THE PASSIONS by Shelley Hirsch in Munich, Vienna and Berlin; Microtonal Music Festival and SECOND SPECIES opera by Skip LaPlante; Samm Bennett’s electronic percussion trio CHUNK at New Music America ‘89 and European tour; DHARMA SWARA Balinese Gamelan at NY Indonesian Consulate, Asia Society, Museum of Natural History , the United Nations, Merkin Concert Hall; WORLD POWER Gamelan music by Lou Harrison for Mark Morris Dance at BAM; A POPOL VUH STORY directed by Ralph Lee with music by Glen Velez at The Public Theater, Intar, and on tour; UNIVERSE SYMPHONY by Charles Ives arranged by Johnny Rheinhard at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center; DORMANT CRATERS by Henry Brant at Lincoln Center (World Premiere); OPERATION KRACKPOT by David First at Roulette, Harvestworks and Diapason; and WOMAN'S SONG by Lisa Karrer at The Kitchen and on tour to Tallinn.