Dustin O'Halloran

Dustin O'Halloran

Dustin O'Halloran is an American modern classical pianist and composer from Phoenix, Arizona. He is also a member of A Winged Victory for the Sullen and Dēvics. Born in 1971, he begins his musical life as a guitarist before turning more seriously to the piano.

Early life and musical development

O'Halloran is self-taught on piano from the age of seven, although he later says he does not begin to study the instrument in earnest until college. While studying at Santa Monica College in Los Angeles, he meets Sara Lov and forms Dēvics. He later studies music in Italy and in Berlin, and he lives in Berlin.

His music is shaped by a wide range of settings and experiences, including time in Los Angeles, rural Emilia-Romagna in Italy, and Berlin. He also has synaesthesia, which he notices around the time of a performance at New York's Guggenheim Museum for a Kandinsky retrospective and 50th anniversary gala.

Dēvics and solo work

With Dēvics, a dream-pop band on Bella Union, he releases four albums and six singles between 1998 and 2006. O'Halloran then develops a solo career with the piano records Piano Solos, Vol. 1 and Piano Solos, Vol. 2, released by Bella Union in 2004 and 2006. These recordings are made on a restored 1920s Sabel piano in his Italian farmhouse.

His third solo album, Lumiere, appears on FatCat's orchestral imprint 130701. It expands his sound beyond solo piano and features the ACME Quartet, Stars of the Lid's Adam Wiltzie, and composer Peter Broderick. A live solo album, Vorleben, is also released on FatCat / 130701.

Film scores and collaborators

O'Halloran gains wider recognition for his score to Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette. He also scores William Olsen's An American Affair and Drake Doremus' Like Crazy, which wins an award at the Sundance Film Festival in 2011. His work is associated with the broad post-classical field, and he is named alongside composers such as Max Richter, Hauschka and Johann Johannsson. Johann Johannsson also helps mix one of his albums.

Style and influences

His music combines piano writing with ensemble arrangements and draws on influences including Arvo Pärt, Philip Glass, Hans Otte, John Luther Adams, Olivier Messiaen, Ennio Morricone and Gavin Bryars. It is described through its attention to nuance, space and texture, with his rock background in Dēvics feeding into his approach to modern classical composition.