David Van Tieghem

David Van Tieghem
David Van Tieghem in his album These Things Happen-Remixes
Background information
Born	21 April 1955 (1955-04-21) (age 56) Washington, DC
Genres	Progressive Electronic, Techno
Instruments	Percussion; Keyboard
Years active	1974-present
Labels	Warner Bros. Records Private Music Records
Associated acts	Laurie Anderson, Talking Heads, Steve Reich
Website	www.vantieghem.com

David Van Tieghem is an American composer, musician, percussionist, drummer, keyboardist, performance artist, video artist and actor, notorious for his philosophy of applying any available object as a percussion instrument and his collaborations with Experimental rock artist Laurie Anderson.^[1]

Biography

David Van Tieghem was born on April 21, 1955, in Washington, DC. He studied percussion with Justin DiCioccio, of NYC's LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts. He later attended Manhattan School of Music as a student of modern percussion pioneer Paul Price.

Career

Since 1977 he has been presenting his solo percussion-theater performances in venues throughout the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Composers Showcase series and the Serious Fun! Festival at Lincoln Center.

As a free-lance percussionist, he has worked with Steve Reich, Laurie Anderson, Brian Eno, Talking Heads, David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Pink Floyd, Steve Nicks, Nona Hendryx, Peter Gordon and the Love of Life Orchestra (LOLO), Arthur Russell, Howard Shore, Robert Fripp, Deborah Harry & Chris Stein of Blondie, Nick Rhodes & Simon LeBon of Duran Duran, Adrian Belew, Chris Spedding, Robert Gordon, John Cale, Michael Oldfield, Tracy Bonham, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Arto Lindsay, Bill Laswell, Jon Gibson, Ned Sublette, Tony Williams, Lenny Pickett, Richard Peaslee, Michael Nyman, Jerry Marotta, John Zorn, Anton Fier, Elliott Murphy, Robert Ashley, Carson Kievman, Happy Traum, and NEXUS Percussion, among others.

As an actor/musician, he has appeared in music-theater with Keith Carradine and Ellen Greene at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, in performance-art by Robert Longo, in photographs by William Wegman, and in video art by John Sanborn & Kit Fitzgerald, and Nam June Paik. He also played several roles in Robert Ashley's television operas, among other many collaborations.

From 1978 to 1983 he has been active in a great number of soundtracks and scores. In 1984 he released his first solo album, These Things Happen, on the Warner Bros. Records label. In 1981 he released a famous video work named "Ear To The Ground". In 1986, he received a Bessie Award (NY Dance and Performance) Award for Music. 3 years after the release of his critically acclaimed debut album, Van Tieghem's second studio album, Safety In Numbers, was released in 1987 under the label of Private Music Records. The music video from the song "Galaxy" was a minor hit. Van Tieghem's third studio album, Strange Cargo, was released in 1989.

From 1989 to the present, Van Tieghem has been composing music for Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, as well as a few film scores. In 1996 he received a 1996 Drama Desk Award nomination for Best Sound Design (for "The Grey Zone"), and was awarded a 1996 Obie for Sustained Excellence of Music. In 1998, How I Learned to Drive was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and the play completed a run in 1999 at the Mark Taper Forum in L.A., starring Molly Ringwald, with the original director and design team. Van Tieghem was also nominated for a 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Sound Design for Scotland Road. Van Tieghem received two 1999 Drama Desk Award Nominations- Outstanding Music in a Play for The Turn of the Screw and Outstanding Sound Design for Stop Kiss.^[2]

Van Tieghem is currently an active musician and sound designer, most recently having scored the Broadway play "A Behanding In Spokane," starring Christopher Walken, and collaborating with choreographers Doug Varone and Elizabeth Streb. He just released his fourth studio album, "Thrown For A Loop."

In 2011, he was sound designer for the Tony-nominated Broadway revival of Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia". He also composed original music and designed sound for the Broadway revivals of "Born Yesterday" (directed by Doug Hughes) and "The Normal Heart" (winner of the 2011 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play, directed by George C. Wolfe and Joel Grey).

Discography

Studio Albums

• These Things Happen (1984)
• Safety In Numbers (1987)
• Strange Cargo (1989)
• Thrown For A Loop (2009)

Singles

• "These Things Happen - Remixes" (1984)
• "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida" (1986)

Major Collaborations

Laurie Anderson:

• Talk Normal: The Laurie Anderson Anthology (2000, WEA/Rhino)
• Strange Angels (1989, Warner Bros.)
• Home Of The Brave (1986, Warner Bros.) With Adrian Belew, William S. Burroughs, Nile Rodgers, Joy Askew
• Mister Heartbreak (1984, Warner Bros.) With Adrian Belew, Bill Laswell, William S. Burroughs, Nile Rodgers, Peter Gabriel.
• United States Live (1984, Warner Bros.)
• Big Science (1982, Warner Bros.)

Talking Heads

• Speaking In Tongues (1983, Sire/Warner Bros.) With Nona Hendryx, Shankar, Bernie Worrell

Brian Eno & David Byrne

• My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981, Sire/Editions E.G.) With Robert Fripp, Bill Laswell

Arcadia

• So Red The Rose (1985, Capitol) With Sting, David Gilmour, Herbie Hancock

References

1. ^ David Van Tieghem by William Ruhlmann; URL accessed December 8, 2008
2. ^ David Van Tieghem by David Van Tieghem; URL accessed December 8, 2008

Persondata
Name	Van Tieghem, David
Alternative names
Short description	American musician and composer
Date of birth	April 21, 1955
Place of birth	Washington, DC, United States
Date of death
Place of death