Tuesday, 08 August, 2023 - 16:29

Nick Dunston

Nick Dunston is a formerly Brooklyn-based composer, bassist, and scholar, now residing in Berlin. An “indispensable player on the New York avant-garde" (New York Times), his performances have spanned a variety of venues and festivals across North America and Europe. He's performed, toured, and recorded professionally with bands led by artists such as Tyshawn Sorey, Vijay Iyer, Marc Ribot, Ches Smith, Imani Uzuri, Ingrid Laubrock, Anthony Coleman, Roman Filiu, Jonathan Finlayson, Amirtha Kidambi, Moor Mother, Dave Douglas, Matt Wilson, Tomas Fujiwara, Allison Miller, Jeff Lederer, Jeff "Tain" Watts, and Darius Jones. He’s spent extensive time studying with bassists Linda May Han Oh, Ben Street, Harish Raghavan, as well as with composer Missy Mazzoli. 
As a composer, Dunston has written for a wide range of artists of multiple genres and disciplines. He's written for entities such as the New York Public Library of Performing Arts, the Joffrey Ballet School, The Witches, violist Joanna Mattrey, and the ESMAE Jazz and Chamber Orchestras. In 2019 he was awarded the Van Lier Fellowship by Roulette Intermedium, which supported the world premieres of “The Floor is Lava!” (upright bass quintet), and “La Operación” (double saxophone trio + soprano voice), referred to as “a work so dramatic and large that is both a response to socio-historical truth as well as a reflection on his own identity…” (I Care If You Listen). As a writer, he's made monthly contributions to Hot House Jazz Magazine from 2016-2019.