MacDowell residency

In Oct/Nov I had the privilege to be a Fellow at MacDowell Artist Residency in Peterborough New Hampshire. I used the time to work on several different projects, including my 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship project, DUOS++OCTET which gathers all of my duo partners into a larger ensemble (the work was begun in my show at Roulette April 24th and is continuing)

I worked and created for 4 weeks, surrounded by beautiful trees in a peaceful (and quiet) environment, and in the company of, and inspired by the brilliant writers, filmmakers, choreographer and visual artists, I began composing and practicing and working toward what will be ultimately a primarily a solo guitar and voice album (to be named) inviting collaborators to join me on some tracks.

I also wrote poetry and took many many photos of trees some will become scores for future pieces, As seen below ;) Gratitude for the privilege, and the community and new friends and MacDowell.

Wake Me When It’s Green – M3 commission with Gwen Laster

June saw the release of “Wake Me When It’s Green” – a new music and video composition and collaboration between Dafna Naphtali and violinist Gwen Laster. The piece, features Naphtali on voice, electric guitar and electronics, and Laster’s violin and voice, is homage to the duo’s recently departed fathers and a celebration of a sky full of ancestors.

The piece was commissioned by M3 Mutual Mentorship for Musicians as part of the work of the Fall 2022 Equinox cohort. The piece premiered on June 13th at the National Jazz Museum of Harlem, along with 5 other commissions of duo pieces created by the cohort’s 12 members. A Lifetime Achievement award was also presented that evening to pianist Michele Rosewoman. More information about M3 and the Fall 2022 cohort can be found here:https://dafna.info/wp-admin/post.php?post=4473&action=edit

Below is the piece as it was broadcast on June 13th. To see all of the commissioned pieces by the cohort, watch from the beginning!

Guggenheim Fellowship

Dafna Naphtali has been awarded 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship!


John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation announced the 2023 Fellowships, and has awarded 171 artists, researchers, writers and others this prestigious award.

This is an outstanding opportunity and it is humbling to be included in this cohort of brilliant scholars and artists.

Fall 2022 M³ (Mutual Mentorship for Musicians).

Great news! Dafna’s been selected for the Fall Equinox 2022 Cohort of Mutual Mentorship for Musicians. M³ is a platform created in 2020, co-founded by vocalist-composers Jen Shyu and Sara Serpa, to empower, elevate, normalize and give visibility to women, non-binary musicians and those of other historically underrepresented gender identities in intersection with race, sexuality, or ability across generations in the US and worldwide, through a radical model of mentorship and musical collaborative commissions. https://mutualmentorshipformusicians.org/

Fall Equinox 2022 Cohort is: Krissy Bergmark – tabla (Chicago), Aline Frazão – voice, guitar (Angola/Berlin), Jessica Jones – tenor saxophone/piano (NYC), Tara Kannangara – trumpet/voice (Toronto, Canada), Gwen Laster – violin (Beacon, NY), Rosángela Isabel Pérez Molero – violin (Venezuela/Argentina), Naomi Nakanishi – piano (Boston), Dafna Naphtali – electronics/voice (NYC), CC Sunchild- piano/voice (Atlanta), Zeynep Toraman- Electronics/Composer (guitar and synth) (Berlin/Turkey), Ni Made Ayu Dwi Sattvitri – gamelan (Indonesia), Kavita Shah – voice/piano/ukulele/electronics (NYC). Stay tuned for Dafna’s new project with Gwen Laster (violin) in 2023!

Electronic Frequencies radio broadcast curated by Anne Wellmer

a 59 minute radio broadcast of new works by Dafna Naphtali –curated by Anne Wellmer.   The show is archived at : http://www.concertzender.nl/programma/electronic_frequencies_367685/

Short Waves / Long Distance Repository Broadcast– Wave Farm radio

All the News All the Time by Dafna Naphtali is archived here:  https://wavefarm.org/archive/r61615

The entire show available here: https://wavefarm.org/wgxc/schedule/wj64zq

This special five-hour broadcast features the 37 works that comprise the Short Waves / Long Distance Repository, including Dafna Naphtali’s new shortwave radio piece “All the News, All the Time”. The works included in the repository were selected from the submissions to “Short Waves / Long Distance,” an highly-competitive open call for composition exploring the sonics of the shortwave radio spectrum (2-30 mHz), and the experience of long distance listening.

Organized by Wave Farm and The North American Shortwave Association, the call was announced in conjunction with the 30th Anniversary of the Winter Shortwave Listener’s Fest and Wave Farm’s 20th Anniversary, both of which are celebrated in 2017. This program includes the following works and artists, in the order listed below.

Artists/Works:   Elegy for RCI, Lee Rosevere Modulation I, Javier Suarez Quiros Caller, Ed Osborn Ondes Simultanee et Perturber, Patrick Harrop Fringe Area, William Basinski St Columb Major – transmission received, Mark Vernon Let’s Absorb The Waves As We Hold On For Dear Life, Nicholas Knouf a lagoon, considered against its archival image, Sally Ann McIntyre (Radio Cegeste) Oracle, Edward Ruchalski The Perfect Storm , Stephen Bradley Over the Horizon, Pietro Bonanno Strange Sonars, Linda Dusman & Alon Wonneberger Argent Discovery, Jed Miner Three Steppes Forward Two Steppes Back, Jeff Gburek Spectres of Shortwave: Falling Towers (excerpt), Amanda Dawn Christie AM_on_FM / sine_wave, beepblip (Ida Hirsenfelder) All the News All the Time, Dafna Naphtali an electrical discharge, a sea of burning oil slicks, Sally Ann McIntyre (Radio Cegeste) CODEX: Post-Human Speech Sounds, Tom Miller (a.k.a. Comrade Squelch) Chasing Waterfalls, Sam Rowell Crimean Snow, John Roach Fuzz, Ricardo Paraíso Silvestre Ghostwave, Jacques Foschia Hellschreiber, Acoustic Mirror I listened to the buzzer for hours and nothing happened (edit), D.N.P vs Mutate Körper, Antonio D’Amato L’abolition de la Croix, Meira Asher Michael Sedore, ND2Q, Dominique Ferraton Short Waves, So Beast Shortwave Radio, South Africa, IV, Gregory Kramer Staubrauschen (Dusty Noise / Media Dirt), Timo Kahlen öö & ää, Evangelos Makropoulos, Gosha Hniu, Victor Math, and Horace Prawn Shortwaves trip, Paolo Pastorino Stratocode from nowhere, Flaub TransSonic Awakenings in D, Douglas Hedwig through the shortwave, part one, Spasmodular sounds from Steve’s shortwave Orbital Lullaby (selections), Craig Dongoski.

Radio Art 106fm #82 broadcast –Dafna Naphtali curated by Meira Asher 2/11/2017

The show, curated by Meira Asher, based in Israel is 59 minutes of Dafna Naphtali’s recent works including a new Radio Art piece “All the News, All the Time”.

The show is archived at https://www.mixcloud.com/radioart106/ra106fm_82_dafna-naphtali/

Screen Compositions 13 at Experimental Intermedia 3/14/17

My new video “Blaafarveværket” using video synthesis materials I created during my residency at Signal Culture (June 2016), is finished with aleatoric presentation and audio synthesis by Hans Tammen.  Blaafarveværket (“Blue Color Works”), in Norway, produced most of the world’s cobalt blue dye in 19th century.). at Screen Compositions 13 on March 14, 2017, soon on Youtube..

Sliver Shift artwork

SCREEN COMPOSITIONS 13 – Curated by Katherine Liberovskaya It’s the thirteenth year of Screen Compositions; in Chinese culture (and we’re in Chinatown) 13 is very lucky and means “definitely vibrant”; so this 2017 edition presents a most definitely vibrant collection of intersections of moving image with sonic art; a program of screen works representing dynamic two-way collaborations between video/film artists and sound/music artists specifically intended for single-channel projection with no live or performance component; featuring collaborations by: Magdalena Campos-Pons / Neil Leonard; Paul Clipson / Byron Westbrook; Julie Doucet / Anne-f. Jacques; Janene Higgins / Cassis B Staudt; Luis Macias / Alfredo Costa Monteiro; Geoff Matters / Dok Gregory; Laetitia Morais / Carlos Guedes; Dafna Naphtali / Hans Tammen; Mercedes Peris / Ferrer-Molina; Paola Pisani / Alessandro Fogar. Dafna Naphtali / Hans Tammen’s collaboration “Blaafarveværket” includes video synthesis work from Dafna’s residency at Signal Culture last June! BUY TICKETS More information

Time: 7:00pm. Admission: 4.99. Age restrictions: All Ages. Address: 224 Centre Street at Grand, Third Floor. Venue phone: 212 431 5127, 431 6430.