Contact: davysumnersound@gmail.com

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Davy Sumner is an audio engineer, sound designer, composer, installation artist, improviser, and educator based in Los Angeles. His original works are spawned out of physics, biology, and sensory perception, often utilizing electromechanical sound devices, spatialized audio, vintage recording hardware, destructive movements, and feedback-based systems as key elements. He specializes in devising atypical instruments that are animated, unpredictable, and stand to incite interpersonal interaction between audience and performer.

A fiercely active and diverse collaborator, he has worked as an arranger and audio engineer with Grammy winning artists Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Sean Carey (S. Carey), Rob Moose (yMusic, Ben Folds), and Eyvind Kang (Beck, Animal Collective). As an Artist-In-Residence, his projects have been showcased by The National Park Service, The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Side Street Projects, and the Westben Centre for Connection and Creativity, where he has Facilitated a yearly Performer-Composer Residency since 2018. His trio of improvised electroacoustic music with Clay Chaplin and Tim Feeney released their first recording, One, on Casa Berenice Recordings in 2019.

As a consultant Sound Designer and Mixer for Walt Disney Imagineering, Davy creates, mixes, and installs audio features for Disneyland and Walt Disney World. While mixing the THEA award-winning Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge lands, he worked directly with Academy-Award winning sound designer Gary Rydstrom and Skywalker Sound. He was a sound editor and mixer for the 2019 edition of Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, coinciding with the release of the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker film. Davy supervises audio, engineers, mixes, and masters podcasts for Pineapple Street Studios (The Eleventh, Back Issue, Because of Anita), HULU, Netflix, HBO, Mailchimp, and The Moth.

Davy’s work has been featured at Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Eaux Claires Music and Arts Festival, REDCAT, Stanford University, Grand Central Art Center, The Orange Country Center for Contemporary Art, and The Emerge Impact + Music Festival. As a Special Faculty Member at CalArts, he has designed curriculum and taught Low-Tech Prototyping, Graduate Electroacoustic Seminar, Major Composition Lessons, and Persia-Electric Ensemble.

He is a two-time winner of prestigious Segal Education Awards from the Corporation for National and Community Service for his service as director of CalArts Community Arts Partnership arts education programs for underserved youth in LA County. Davy holds a Bachelor's in Music Composition from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and an MFA in Experimental Sound Practices from CalArts, where he studied with Mark Trayle, Clay Chaplin, Sara Roberts, Scott Cazan, and Amy Knoles.