Recent Highlights

Composition & Performance

Currents - TAU Wind Band

— Dana’s composition “Currents” was recently performed in Tel Aviv by the TAU Wind Band (conductor: Uri Reisner) in July 2022. View a video of the performance on Youtube.

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Chanson de Fleurs: Eleanor of Aquitaine

Remote Together | Catherine Lee | Redshift Music

— Dana composed Chanson de Fleurs – Eleanor of Aquitaine (2017) for oboe and soundscape for Catherine Lee. The piece was created through a collaborative process (RedShift Records, 2021). Catherine’s album, which includes the track, was nominated for a 2022 Juno Award (Best Classical Album of the Year – Solo Artist).

Chanson de Fleurs: Eleanor of Aquitaine (2017) for oboe and soundscape by Dana Reason

Listen to a live performance of Chanson de Fleurs: Eleanor of Aquitaine

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Music for film & TV

The Hammer Museum screened: Le Rembrandt de la rue Lepic (LA, Aug. 13, 2022), one of the films Dana scored and performed on during an OSU Humanities Fellowship.

Related to this project, there’s a New York Times review of A Selection of Films From Cinema’s First Nasty Women, which screened at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, NY Aug 20-21, 2022. The program featured 11 sample titles (including musical contributions by Dana) from “Cinema’s First Nasty Women,” a four-disc Kino Lorber box set that will be available on Sept. 27, 2022.

There’s also a NitrateVille podcast ( ep. 89: Cinemas First Nasty Women ), featuring an interview with Dana and other creators behind the Cinema’s First Nasty Women release. Dana talks about commissioning scores from more than 45 different composers, and portions of two of the scores are played: The Rembrandt of the Rue Lepic (1911), by Dana, and Petronille’s Despair (1914) by Violin Noir.

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ALICE GUY BLACHE

Dana was a contributing composer and Music Supervisor for the Alice Guy Blachet, Vol. 2: The Solax Years film collection (Kino Lorber, 2020).

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Awards & Recognition

Angle of Vision by Dana Reason

Dana Reason Angle of Vision

Dana’s album Angle of Vision was long-listed for a Grammy in 3 separate categories including, Best Instrumental Composition, Best Arrangement, and Best Jazz Instrumental Album.

Get Angle of Vision here

OSU Wind Ensemble performs “Currents” by Dr. Dana Reason

OSU Wind Ensemble performs "Currents" by Dr. Dana Reason

Dana’s wind symphony Currents, was long-listed for Best Contemporary Classical Composition (Grammys, Mark Records, 2014).

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publications

The Routledge Companion to Jazz and Gender

The Routledge Companion to Jazz and Gender identifies, defines, and interrogates the construct of gender in all forms of jazz, jazz culture, and education, shaping and transforming the conversation in response to changing cultural and societal norms across the globe.”

Dana contributed chapter 31, “Call and (Her) Response: Improvisation and the Myth of Absence.”

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Play Like A Girl Header Image

Play Like A Girl — An article, written by Dana Reason with Carrie Leigh Page, published by NewMusic USA, wherein the authors seek to address certain misconceptions about women in music, and demonstrate some vital contributions to the areas of composition and performance. 

“When coverage of women does occur in magazines or online, the tendency to foreground physical descriptions, make overtly gendered remarks, or advance theories as to the exceptionality of the woman in question. . . can distract readers from the quality of the work and the artistic achievements of experimental women.”

Read the full article and find out more about the International Alliance for Women in Music

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“Reason’s voice as a composer and instrumentalist is firmly her own, and well worth listening to.” 

Joe Tangari, Downbeat Magazine

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About Dana Reason

Dana Reason is a Canadian composer, recording artist, keyboardist, producer, arranger, and sound artist working at the intersections of contemporary musical genres and intermedia practices. Read more

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