Born in 1960, Douglas Henderson studied music composition and theory with Milton Babbitt, Elie Yarden and J.K. Randall. He received his Ph.D. in Music Composition from Princeton University in 1991, his M.A. from Princeton in 1985 and his B.A. in Music from Bard College in 1982. He previously chaired the Sound Art Department at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and now works and lives in Berlin and Brooklyn.
Currently represented by Galerie Mario Mazzoli (Berlin), he was a guest of the DAAD Berliner Kuenstlerprogramm in 2007, and a Foundation for Contemporary Arts 2007 Recipient. He received a 2008 Rockefeller Foundation MAP Award, shared one with with Luis Lara Malvacias in 2005 and was awarded a 1998 “Bessie” (New York Dance and Performance Award).
Performances and installations at the Whitney Museum of American Art, daadgalerie, Art in General, ArtForum Berlin, Artefiera Bologna, The Kitchen, Diapason Gallery and Dance Theater Workshop have enjoyed the support of grants from Meet The Composer, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, The Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Fund, Creative Time, and the New York State Council for the Arts, and his compositions have been included in numerous international festivals from New Music America in New York to the Seoul International Festival of Computer Music in South Korea.
He has been composing, performing and building in New York City and internationally for more than 24 years with a variety of artists and musicians, including John Zorn, Zeena Parkins, Ikue Mori, Jude Tallichet, Kristin Lucas and David Scher. He has composed extensively for modern dance choreographers such as Meg Stuart, Jeremy Nelson, David Zambrano, Jennifer Monson and Yvonne Meier, as well as for Ricochet Dance (London, UK) Phoenix Dance Theatre (Leeds, UK) and Wildadance (DK). He has toured extensively in the U.S. and in Europe performing original work and in the 1990’s with experimental punk/noise bands Spongehead and Krackhouse.
Education, Awards
2008 The Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Program Award for the production of Music for 100 Carpenters in New York City.
2007 Deutsche Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) Berliner Künstlerprogramm residency in Berlin.
2007 The Foundation for Contemporary Arts Individual Artist Grant, NYC
2006 Artist in Residence at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, NYC
2005 The Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Program Award for collaboration with Venezuelan choreographer Luis Lara Malvacias on Channel Sur
2005 Art in General Commission for creation and presentation of Tickertape
2005 The Whitney Museum of American Art Commission for creation and presentation of (pages of illustrations)
2004 Artist Resource Media Lab Fellowship at Dance Theater Workshop, NYC.
2002 Artist in Residence at Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, NYC
1999 Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust Recording Program Grant with Guy Yarden for the double CD of compositions for modern dance entitled an ear for a leg, a collection of works by seven New York composers (including Yarden and Henderson).
1998 The New York Dance and Performance Award ("Bessie") with composer Guy Yarden for music composed for Kriyas, in collaboraton with choreographer Mia Lawrence.
1998 Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust Commissioning Award for Kriyas.
1991-2004 Numerous Meet The Composer grants for public performances of works.
1991 PhD in Music Composition from Princeton University, Princeton NJ.
1990 New York State Council of the Arts Commissioning Grant for A Palace of Mud and Straw, a part acoustic, part electronic work for mixed sextet.
1989 Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust Recording Program Grant with Guy Yarden for the recording of Exquisite Corpses from PS122, a set of collaborative scores for 31 improvising musicians.
1988 Meet the Composer Grant for performance of Exquisite Corpses from the Bunker, a set of collaborative scores for 26 improvising musicians.
1987 Meet the Composer Commissioning Grant for performance of Ground Fault, a score for electronic interface with mixed quartet.
1982 BA in Music Composition at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson NY.
1981 Classical Recording Engineer's Certificate from Aspen Music Institute
