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David Arner

Pianist, percussionist and composer David Arner is a long time proponent of innovative music and spontaneous composition. A resident of New York’s Mid-Hudson valley, the Woodstock Times has hailed him as “one of the Valley’s most consistently inventive and stimulating musical improvisors.” Arner released his 1st CD, Solo Piano (Dogstar), in 2002. The album documents Arner’s ongoing series of spontaneous compositions for solo piano, both in concert and in the studio, applying his characteristic piano wizardry to a wide array of themes from mythology to the blues. Paul Elisha of Northeast Public Radio said of this CD that Arner “holds and transports listeners through the incredible maze of his seemingly unflagging imagination.” David Arner’s 2nd CD, Live from the Center (Dogstar 2005), features his solo piano music from one of his annual concerts at The Center for Performing Arts in Rhinebeck. Cadence Magazine’s Frank Rubolino said of this CD that Arner is "an intense, introspective pianist who methodically constructs sound portraits of shattering dimensions... Inspiration comes in waves of light… Arner is a discerning musician who retreats inwardly to project his obsessions externally. His process will transfix and awe."

Arner curated New Directions in Jazz and the New Vanguard Series in Kingston NY, which presented improvisational and innovative jazz, as well as avant-garde "classical" music, every week from June 2003 to April 2007. He performed in the series about once a month. The New Vanguard Series was sponsored by Deep Listening Institute.

While well known for his solo work, over the years Arner has played with bassists Michael Bisio, Adam Lane, Dominic Duval, Steve Rust, Chris Sullivan & John Voigt, drummers Jay Rosen, Harvey Sorgen, Dean Sharp, Susie Ibarra, Brian Willson, Laurence Cook, Jackson Krall & Tatsuya Nakatani, horn players Avram Fefer, Joe Giardullo, Joe McPhee, Ras Moshe, Blaise Siwula & Dawid Kosiarkiewicz, violinists Rosi Hertlein and Michael Snow, cellists Tomas Ulrich and Martha Colby, trumpeters Matt Lavelle & Russ Johnson, trombonists David Taylor and Sarah Weaver, guitarists Dom Minasi, Rolf Sturm and Rich Rosenthal, and composer Pauline Oliveros. He has also collaborated with poets Charles Stein, Mikhail Horowitz & Janine Vega, and choreographer Susan Osberg.

In May 2005 at the 4th Annual Improvised and Otherwise Festival in Brooklyn, Arner performed with Susan Osberg's Workwith Dancers Company. At Bard College, where he served as Music Advisor for the dance department for 23 years between 1981 and 2009, he also composed pieces on a weekly basis for Albert Reid’s and Aileen Passloff’s choreography workshops. His compositions for dances by Passloff (Screaming Flower, 1985), Reid (The Ritual, 1987) and the late Jeanette Leentvaar (Opus 36, 1988) have been presented in Caracas, Paris, and in New York at the Merce Cunningham Studio. Other compositions for dance have included the music for Passloff’s Phantom Crossings developed as composer-in-residence at Bard College (1998), and Elaine Colandrea’s evening-length Fool’s Journey presented at the Center for Performing Arts at Rhinebeck (1999). Arner also served as Music Director for Jacques d”Amboise’s National Dance Institute in Arlington NY (1983-84).

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290
Album Review

The David Arner Trio: Out/In The Open

Read "Out/In The Open" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza


David Arner has built a reputation as an innovative pianist and a proponent of spontaneous composition. He filters both skills into his music and adds a healthy dose of surprise through changes in tempo, dynamics and harmony, weaving one into the other with facile dexterity. His ability to shape progression has led to associations with other creative forces like Tomas Ulrich, Dom Minasi, Susie Ibarra and Dominic Duval. He also has collaborated with his compatriots on this record, Michael Bisio ...

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83

Recording

The David Arner Trio: Out/in the Open, 2007

The David Arner Trio: Out/in the Open, 2007

Source: Gapplegate Music Review by Grego Edwards

Pianist David Arner is a musical voice that does not fit easily into the various schools of improvisation that are widely influential among the free school of players. He's managed to forge a path that does not cross directly the Cecil Taylors, the Paul Bleys, the Keith Jarretts, or the Bill Evans influenced players. Not that he has ignored these stylistic landmarks. Clearly not. But he chooses to go his own way. You can hear that quite readily in the ...

170

Performance / Tour

Dom Minasi, David Arner & Tomas Ulrich The New Vanguard Series Deep Listening Institute Sunday May 21 at 3:00pm

Dom Minasi, David Arner & Tomas Ulrich The New Vanguard Series Deep Listening Institute Sunday May 21 at 3:00pm

Source: All About Jazz

Deep Listening Institute presents: The NEW VANGUARD Series Every Sunday Afternoon at Alternative Books This Week Sunday May 21 DOM MINASI, DAVID ARNER & TOMAS ULRICH (guitar, piano & cello) Alternative Books Our New Location 35 North Front Street, Kingston NY For directions reply to this email http://www.deeplistening.org (845) 338-5984 3:00pm $10/$8 About this week's ensemble: ...

"A virtuoso of the heart and mind, as well as of the hands" JazzReview.com 2002

"Arner has planted a valuable seed in the improvised piano field of dreams." JazzReview.com 2002

"An intense, introspective pianist who methodically constructs sound portraits of shattering dimensions." Cadence Magazine March 2006

"His touch was delicate and purposeful, intended for drawing an atmosphere and breaking it apart. His touch caused the sound to pulsate like groups of binary stars and whir like intergalactic dust winds." JazzReview.com 2003

Primary Instrument

Piano

Willing to teach

Advanced only

Clinic/Workshop Information

Improvisation Workshops

Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Out/In The Open

Not Two Records
2009

buy

Live From The Center

Cristal Records
2005

buy

Solo Piano

Cristal Records
2002

buy

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