CV — Dina Maccabee

Curriculum Vitae

Versatile composer, classically trained violist, and vocalist with a diverse catalog of creative work, including theatre scoring and sound design, instrumental performance and arrangement, songwriting, interdisciplinary sound art, music recording and production.

Education
2015 Wesleyan University M.A. (Music Composition)
2002 University of Michigan B.Music (Viola) and B.A. (History)

Grants and Awards
San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music Musical Grant Program,
2012 and 2015
Meet the Composer Award, 2012
Isadora Duncan Award nominee, 2012

Selected Works

Still Life / Group Loops - 2018 and 2023
Songs in free canon form for mixed vocal ensemble with improvisation techniques
A Meeting that Never Took Place - 2021
Sound design and score for contemporary Berlin dance production with binaural headphone implementation; premiered at Lake Studios, Berlin
WiiMote Lectures - 2021
Lecture performance with Max Patches for musical improvisation with Wii-Motes. Also presented at Ponderosa to allow dancers to control sound with movement
Trashghan 2 - 2022
Sound costume and interactive solo performance for the interdisciplinary series Women Between Arts at the New School Glass Box Theater
Roses are Blue - Workshops - 2015 and 2017
Initial development of scenic song cycle for 6 voices and narrator based on the children's book by Gertrude Stein, The World is Round
Sweet Land, the Musical - 2017
History Theater / Buffalo Gal Productions, Minnesota, USA. Original score for a musical theatre production written and directed by an all-female creative team
Trashghan 1 - 2015
Acoustic "Instruments" made from found materials for "autonomous sensory meridian response" YouTube artists
The Observer’s Book of Weather and Shawnee - 2015
For four voices SATB; premiere by New York Virtuoso Singers
Song-O-Phone - 2015
Collaborative musical recording game of telephone including 30 artists
In the Time - 2015
A cappella duo vocal score for contemporary ballet commissioned by Amy Seiwert’s Imagery, ODC, San Francisco, with Jesse Olsen Bay

Selected Releases

Dina Maccabee
The Sharpening Machine
The Work is in the World
The World is in the Work
Songs for Violin and Voice
Land So Sweet: Songs from Sweet Land, the Musical
Who do You Suppose You Are

ramon & jessica
Sing Along with Ramon & Jessica
Fly South
In the Time
Handyman's Honeymoon
Ramon & Jessica

Artist Residencies

2022 Mousonturm, Frankfurt
Collaborative residency with Berlin-based performance artist, Perel
2021, 2022 Ponderosa, Stolzenhagen
Self-guided residency
2018 Headlands Center for the Arts, California, USA
Artist in Residence
2016 Convento de Mertola, Portugal
Self-guided residency
2012 Byrdcliffe Colony, Woodstock, New York, USA
Artist in Residence

Composer for narrative media and performance
Creation of original scores and sound design for podcast, film, contemporary theatre, musical theater and dance for productions in the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York, Minnesota, and Germany

Performing instrumentalist and vocalist
Violinist, singer and improviser with looping and electronics as soloist and in collaboration; Performer and recording artist for international tours and albums with Julia Holter, Jewlia Eisenberg, Carla Kihlstedt, Ghost Train Orchestra, Red Room Orchestra and many others; co-founded creative projects such as Lovers' Almanac, Ramon & Jessica, Real Vocal String Quartet, Carolyna Picknick, Lala Laranja, Guts & Buttons, and others

Songwriter / Producer / Arranger
Solo and collaborative albums of acoustic, chamber music, experimental and pop music, released on the record labels Geomancy, Porto Franco and Antephonic

Selected Recording Credits
Julia Holter – Aviary, In The Same Room
Tune-Yards – I Can Feel You Creep Into My Private Life
Feist – Metals
Ben Babbitt – Paris Window Original Score
Never Enough Hope – The Gift Economy, The Gravity Of Our Commitment
Aaron Novik – Floating World Vol. 1, Frowny Frown, Secrets Of Secrets
Carla Kihlstedt & Rafael Osés - Necessary Monsters
Thao & The Get Down Stay Down – We The Common
Beats Antique – Blind Threshold, Elektrafone
Thao & Mirah – Thao & Mirah
Adam Levy – The Heart Collector
Carla Bozulich – I'm Gonna Stop Killing
The Velvet Teen – Elysium
Vetiver – To Find Me Gone
Vienna Teng – Dreaming Through The Noise
Evie Ladin Band – Evie Ladin Band
The Nice Guy Trio – Sidewalks And Alleys / Waking Music
Silian Rail – (acoustic music)
The Be Good Tanyas – Blue Horse
Shearwater – The Great Awakening
Elizabeth Goodfellow – Terror And Trust, Silly Sun
Geographer – Ghost Modern
Lisa Mezzacappa – Glorious Ravage
Eric Kuhn – Music For Film, Volume Two
Rykarda Parasol – Tuesday Morning
Bart Davenport – Episodes
Trigger (64) + Dina Maccabee – Trigger + 1
Howard Wiley And The Angola Project – 12 Gates To The City