Davy Sumner
Davy Sumner is an installation artist, experimental musician, producer, Maker, and educator based in Los Angeles, CA. His creative works are spawned out of physics, biology, and sensory perception, often utilizing original electronics, spatialized audio, antiquated recording devices, repetitive movements, and feedback-based systems as key elements. He specializes in imagining atypical technologies and custom instruments that become animated and unpredictable when introduced to the physical world.
Davy’s work has been featured at Walt Disney Concert Hall, The Eaux Claires Music and Arts Festival, REDCAT, CalArts, Stanford, Grand Central Art Center, Side Street Projects, and The Emerge Impact + Music Festival. 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). Davy is currently an Artist-in-Residence in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, a division of the National Park Service.
In 2017 and 2018 he received Segal Education Awards from the Corporation for National and Community Service for his work as Lead AmeriCorps Fellow of the CalArts Community Arts Partnership, where he directs a free music program for underserved youth in Los Angeles 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, Scott Cazan, and Amy Knoles.
