David Van Tieghem

David Van Tieghem
Born	(1955-04-21) 21 April 1955 Washington, DC
Genres	Progressive electronic, techno, Experimental Music
Instruments	Percussion; keyboard
Years active	1974-present
Labels	Warner Bros. Records Private Music
Associated acts	Laurie Anderson, Talking Heads, Steve Reich, Arthur Russell, Peter Gordon
Website	www.vantieghem.com

David Van Tieghem is an American composer, musician, percussionist, drummer, keyboard player, performance artist, video artist and actor, notorious for his philosophy of utilizing any available object as a percussion instrument and his collaborations with the experimental rock artist Laurie Anderson.

Biography

Van Tieghem was born on April 21, 1955, in Washington, D.C. and was raised in Ridgewood, New Jersey, the first son of artist/educator Joan Ruth Stumpf Van Tieghem and painter/sculptor/designer Richard Francis Van Tieghem, and brother of Richard Joseph Van Tieghem. He studied percussion with Justin DiCioccio, of LaGuardia High School of Performing Arts in New York City. He later attended Manhattan School of Music as a student of the 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, Stevie Nicks, Nona Hendryx, Peter Gordon and the Love of Life Orchestra, Arthur Russell (musician), Howard Shore, Robert Fripp, Deborah Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie, Nick Rhodes and Simon LeBon of Duran Duran, Adrian Belew, Chris Spedding, Robert Gordon, John Cale, Mike 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 and 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 played in a 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 video work named "Ear To The Ground". In 1986, he received a Bessie Award (NY Dance and Performance) for Music. Three years after the release of his first album, a 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. His third studio album, Strange Cargo, was released in 1989.

Since 1989, Van Tieghem has been composing music for Broadway and Off-Broadway productions, as well as a few film scores. In 1996, he received a Drama Desk Award nomination for Best Sound Design (for The Grey Zone), and was awarded an 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 Los Angeles, 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. He 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.

An active musician, composer and sound designer, Van Tieghem scored and sound designed the 2010 Broadway play A Behanding in Spokane, starring Christopher Walken, and collaborated on new work with the choreographers Doug Varone and Elizabeth Streb. He released his fourth studio album, Thrown For A Loop, in 2009.

In 2011, he was the 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).

He was the sound designer, composer and percussionist for the 2013 Broadway production of Romeo and Juliet, starring Orlando Bloom and Condola Rashad, directed by David Leveaux.

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, Warner Bros./Rhino/Atlantic)
• 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/Warner Bros.) with Robert Fripp, Bill Laswell

Arcadia:

• So Red the Rose (1985, Capitol/EMI) with Sting, David Gilmour, Herbie Hancock