HELLO HELLO! SOME RECENT HAPPENINGS I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE WITH YOU -
May 9th 2023 - From Carnegie Hall - a new composition - which is in dialogue (small speaker behind me) with one of my favorite sounds in the world - a recording I captured of cars moving/playing across the Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge in Brooklyn - making it sing like an Angel/Devil choir.
Big appreciation for Ibla International and for Francesco Saviano of Unarmed Media for filming.
PHOTO BY RACHAEL HACKING
JANUARY 27 2023 - IN THE IMAGE ABOVE - ABOUT TO PERFORM THE NEW SCORE THAT I WROTE FOR CARL TH DREYER’S 1928 SILENT FILM Le PASSION De JEANNE D’ARC - WITH A STELLAR GROUP OF MUSICIANS AND FRIENDS (TENORES DE ATERUE (vocal), SHAHZAD ISMAILY (moog, banjo, electric bass) , MIKE BROWN (double bass), TRINA BASU (violin), SAM OSPOVAT (drums), CHRIS RODRIGUEZ (bagpipe), The incredible sound team from WQXR and Brookfield Place) - FOR A SOLD OUT CROWD AT THE WINTER GARDEN PERFORMANCE SPACE IN NYC - THIS OFFERING WAS PART OF JOHN SCHAEFER’S ANNUAL SILENT FILM/LIVE SCORE SERIES. BIG APPRECIATION FOR JOHN SCHAEFER, NEW SOUNDS WQXR, AND ARIANA AND EVERYONE AT BROOKFIELD PLACE.
A NEW LIVE RECODING OF THIS PERFORMANCE/IN CONJUNCTION WITH NEW SOUNDS WQXR WILL BE AVAILABLE ON ROPEADOPE RECORDS - SEPTEMBER 22, 2023
IF YOU SO HAPPENED TO BE THERE, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR COMING OUT AND SHARING THIS WITH US!
FILM PREMIERE - (I was let) IN(to) THE WHITE HOUSE - FIRST LADY DR. JILL BIDEN IN THE EAST ROOM (2ND IMAGE) INTRODUCING THE MOST RECENT FILM I SCORED BY THE EWERS BROTHERS AND KEN BURNS - HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT. SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE NANCY PELOSI (LAST IMAGE) INTRODUCING THE FILM THE NEXT DAY FOR MEMBERS OF CONGRESS.
ABOVE - PLAYING ORNETTE COLEMAN’S PERENNIAL - LONELY WOMAN - WITH TREVOR DUNN (BASS) + ARUN RAMAMURTHY (VIOLIN) + FILMED BY MARIKA HACKING.
PHOTO BY RACHAEL HACKING
- from a session at the immeasurable Figure 8 recording studio in Brooklyn with Unarmed Media and Engineer Phil Weinrobe - A score I am developing for the 1897 S.A Andree hydrogen balloon expedition to the North Pole. For Una Corda, voice, bass waterphone, wine glasses and a piano - and the great Luke Bergman playing pedal steel - should arrive 2023 sometime.
ABOUT DAVID CIERI
“David Cieri is a master composer, capable of the most subtle turns of phrase, and sensitive to every nuance of image and sound. His work ranges from the emotionally sublime, to the rhythmically hypnotic, from the joyous to the foreboding. His music is a perfect fit in our creative family. He is fearless on the piano. He is a combination of virtuosity, sensitivity, and curiosity — discovering new ways to express complex emotion through music — which is the backbone of our films. David is a true artist.”
— Ken Burns
“This is real music, not trapped by boxes, definitions and genres, but creating its own style. Cieri delivers beautiful moods … honest, imaginative, fearless.”
— John Zorn
LONG BIO:
DAVID CIERI is a composer and musician who has, for the past dozen years, written scores for some of the best-known documentarians currently working, including the filmmakers Ken Burns, Lynn Nottage and Tony Gerber, Erik and Christopher Ewers, and Barak Goodman, amongst many others. Cieri’s film-scoring work with Burns has been extensive, and includes The Vietnam War (with Yo-Yo Ma and Trent Reznor, 2017), The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014), The Address (2014), Prohibition (with Wynton Marsalis, 2011), Baseball: The Tenth Inning (2010), and the Emmy-winning National Parks (2008). In 2018, he wrote the score, which features guitarist Bill Frisell, for The Mayo Clinic, a film by Erik and Christopher Ewers. Cieri wrote music for Goodman’s Sundance-screened Oklahoma City (2017) and Emmy-nominated Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies (2015). In 2014, his original score for Raymond De Felitta's Booker's Place: A Mississippi Story was long-listed for an Oscar nomination, and in 2013 he had the good fortune to work with George Lucas, writing the score for The Heart of the Matter (2013), a short film for The Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In addition to his film scoring work, Cieri has made nineteen stand-alone record releases of his music. These include the albums White Dust (2017) and Dark Furniture (2018), collaborations with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa. A compilation of Cieri’s original score compositions for Burns’ Florentine Films, Notes From The Underscore, was released by Ropeadope Records in 2017. In 2016, David wrote Graves of Light, a tone poem for carillon bells which was performed by carillonneur Paige Breen and recorded on the bells at Yale’s Harkness Tower. Cieiri’s forthcoming live release, a full score for Carl Th. Dreyer’s silent film masterpiece The Passion of Joan of Arc will be released September, 2023 on Ropeadope Records in conjunction with John Schaefer and New Sounds WNYC.
He recently completed recording music for his second season of The Paris Review Podcast, as well as the score for a four-part documentary about genetics, The Gene: An Intimate History, as written by Siddhartha Mukherjee, which will arrive on PBS in 2020. Ken Burns continues to count Cieri as a critical collaborator, he is presently contributing music to forthcoming projects for Burns’ Florentine Films’ on Muhammed Ali, Ernest Hemingway, and Benjamin Franklin and Hiding in Plain Sight - a two part/4 episode look at mental health in America.
Cieri was born and raised in Philadelphia and new Jersey, his mother, a concert pianist and harpsichordist, introduced David to music and music making very early on. In his 20s, Cieri studied with pianist Art Lande, an influential pedagogue and ECM recording artist; toured throughout the States with Americana outfit, Chief Broom; and played a two year residency at Dulcineas, one of Denver’s premiere jazz clubs. Cieri has had the great good fortune to perform his music live at Carnegie Hall and Jazz at Lincoln Center, amongst other storied New York venues. For the past fourteen years, David has taught Music and Film and Film Scoring at The City College of New York.
SHORT BIO:
DAVID CIERI, a musician and composer, makes music for film, concert, and album release. Cieri has worked with numerous celebrated filmmakers including Ken Burns, the Ewers Brothers, and Barak Goodman. He has recorded nineteen acclaimed albums under his own name, that last ten of which were released by Ropeadope Records. He has collaborated on a major live documentary project with the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Lynn Nottage and has made two records with the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Yusef Komunyakaa. David wrote and performed the live scores for the first three seasons of The Paris Review podcasts. He teaches courses on Film Scoring and Music for Film at The City College of New York.
At Home: David Cieri (2015)
Directed & produced by Francesco Saviano & Marika Hacking of Unarmed Media
Unstuck: The Music of David Cieri (2011)
Directed by Christopher Loren Ewers & Erik Ewers, produced by Julie Coffman