About
Dan Trueman (b. 1968) is an American composer, improviser, violinist and fiddle player, inventor, instrument creator and software designer, Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music at Princeton University. He began playing violin since the age of 4, and switched to a Norwegian Hardanger fiddle decades later, currently performing on a unique Hardanger d'Amore fiddle by Salve Hakedal (with a baroque bow by Michel Jamonneau). In the realms of computer music, Dan Trueman is one of the lead developers and active users of Ge Wang's ChucK music programming language. His compositions explore a wide range of topics, from a rhythmic connection between traditional dance music and machines to unusual phrasing, tuning and ornamentation of the traditional Norwegian music. Dan Trueman is also designing and constructing new digital instruments to implement some of his electronic pieces.
Trueman studied physics at Carleton College in Minnesota, as well as composition/music theory at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and composition at Princeton. He taught at Columbia University and Colgate, before joining Princeton faculty in 2002, where Dan Trueman currently teaches counterpoint, electronic music, and composition. He received an award from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 2006 and MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Award (2008).
Dan's recent projects include a double-quartet for So Percussion and The JACK Quartet commissioned by the Barlow Foundation, an Olagón concert program with singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, poet Paul Muldoon, and Eighth Blackbird ensemble, ongoing collaborations with Irish fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and guitarist Monica Mugan. Trueman has written music for his own ensembles, such as Interface and the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk), which he co-founded with Perry Cook, as well as the Brentano String Quartet, Daedalus String Quartet and Cassatt String Quartet, Non Sequitur, and So Percussion. Among Dan's collaborators are Trollstilt, QQQ, American Composers Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, and Adam Sliwinski. Trueman performed live across the United States, Ireland, and Norway, and participated in a few festivals, including Bang On A Can and Den Norske Folkemusikkveka.
Trueman studied physics at Carleton College in Minnesota, as well as composition/music theory at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and composition at Princeton. He taught at Columbia University and Colgate, before joining Princeton faculty in 2002, where Dan Trueman currently teaches counterpoint, electronic music, and composition. He received an award from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation in 2006 and MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Award (2008).
Dan's recent projects include a double-quartet for So Percussion and The JACK Quartet commissioned by the Barlow Foundation, an Olagón concert program with singer Iarla Ó Lionáird, poet Paul Muldoon, and Eighth Blackbird ensemble, ongoing collaborations with Irish fiddler Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh and guitarist Monica Mugan. Trueman has written music for his own ensembles, such as Interface and the Princeton Laptop Orchestra (PLOrk), which he co-founded with Perry Cook, as well as the Brentano String Quartet, Daedalus String Quartet and Cassatt String Quartet, Non Sequitur, and So Percussion. Among Dan's collaborators are Trollstilt, QQQ, American Composers Orchestra, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Crash Ensemble, and Adam Sliwinski. Trueman performed live across the United States, Ireland, and Norway, and participated in a few festivals, including Bang On A Can and Den Norske Folkemusikkveka.
Discography
26 releasesThe Seventeenth Hotel
Dan Trueman · 2024
Preludes For bitKlavier
Dan Trueman · 2024
The Fate of Bones
Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Dan Trueman · 2022
Fifty Five
Dan Trueman · 2021
Songs That Are Hard To Sing
Dan Trueman, So Percussion, JACK Quartet* · 2019
Olagón (A Cantata In Doublespeak)
Eighth Blackbird, Dan Trueman | Iarla Ó Lionáird | Paul Muldoon · 2017
The Brainwave Music Project
Brad Garton, Dave Soldier* With Margaret Lancaster, Dan Trueman, Terry Pender, William Hooker · 2017
Nostalgic Synchronic (Etudes For Prepared Digital Piano)
Dan Trueman - Adam Sliwinski · 2015
Laghdú
Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Dan Trueman · 2014
Neither Anvil Nor Pulley
Sō Percussion*, Dan Trueman · 2013
Criss Cross
Brittany Haas, Dan Trueman · 2012
Unpacking The Trailer
QQQ, Dan Trueman, Monica Mugan, Jason Treuting, Beth Meyers · 2009
Five (and-a-half) Gardens
So Percussion, Trollstilt, Dan Trueman, Monica Mugan · 2007
Machine Language
Dan Trueman · 2004
Recording Field, H
Interface (23), Curtis Bahn, Tomie Hahn, Pauline Oliveros, Dan Trueman · 2003
. / Swank
Interface (23), Curtis Bahn, Dan Trueman · 2001
Trollstilt
Trollstilt, Dan Trueman, Monica Mugan · 2000
25x25
Sō Percussion* · 2025
The Best Of Your Lies
Owen Lake And The Tragic Loves · 2018
Concerning the Nature of Things
Jeff Snyder · 2018
I Gave The Pope A Rhino
Rogue Oliphant · 2016
Treasure State
So Percussion & Matmos · 2010
Non Sequitur
Non Sequitur · 2005
Three Concertos
Dexter Morrill - Northern Illinois Philharmonic, Steve Squires (3) And Brian Groner · 2002
Talking Drum
Chris Brown · 2001
Serendipity
Society For New Music · 2010