David Behrman

David Behrman has been active as a composer and electronic artist since the 1960s and has created many works for performance as well as sound installations. Most of his work since the late 1970s has involved computer-controlled music systems, operating interactively with people who may or may not be musically expert. He designs and writes much of the software for these systems.

Unforeseen Events, Refractive Light, My Dear Siegfried... and Quick Silver are among Behrman's recent works for soloists and small ensembles which have been performed by musicians skilled at inventive performance.

Behrman performances have been presented during the past three years by the CBC in Toronto, Frizitaliana in Turin, Steim in Amsterdam, Metronom in Barcelona, the New Music Circle in St. Louis, Apollohuis in Eindhoven, Logos in Ghent and World Music's "Interpretations" series in New York. Behrman's sound installations have been exhibited at the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, The Hudson River Museum, The New York Hall of Science, the DeCordova Museum, The Addison Gallery of American Art, Ars Electronica in Linz and La Villette Science and Technology Museum in Paris.

Behrman received a B.A. degree from Harvard College in 1959 and a Masters from Columbia University in 1963. Together with Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma, Behrman founded the Sonic Arts Union in 1966. Sonic Arts performed extensively in North America and Europe from 1966 until 1976.
Working at Columbia Records in the late 1960s, he produced the "Music of Our Time" series of new music recordings for Columbia Masterworks, which presented works by Cage, Oliveros, Lucier, Reich, Riley, Pousseur and other influential composers.
Behrman toured as composer/performer with the Cunningham Dance Company from 1970 through 1976. Behrman was co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College in 1975-1980. He has also taught at Ohio State University, New Music in New Hampshire, Rutgers University and California Institute of the Arts.

In the early 1980s he designed educational music software as a consultant for Children’s Television Workshop. He received a Japan-United States Friendship Commission grant in 1987-88 and a D.A.A.D. (Berlin) fellowship in 1988-89. He is a current recipient of an Individuals Grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts in New York.

Related Events:
View Finder: An Installation by David Behrman