David R Molina is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, sound artist/designer, studio/live sound engineer, music producer, and instrument inventor. He has created music and sound design for all the performing arts, film, and multimedia productions, nationally and internationally, for the past 24 years. Most of his collaborations address social justice issues. They have ranged from immigrant rights, racism, police brutality, the U.S. prison complex, environmentalism, homelessness, femicide, and survivors of war. Many include direct collaboration with marginalized and oppressed community members.
During COVID lockdown he produced many radio plays and podcasts for local and regional theater companies. In 2019/early 2020 he did a 5 month East Coast/MidWest tour with the productions of: Octavio Solis’ Quixote Nuevo (Hartford Stage, Huntington Theater, The Alley Theater), Luis Alfaro’s Mojada (Rep of St Louis), and Tanya Saracho’s Fade (Trinity Rep), and solo/duo concerts with his experimental/ambient music project Transient. In May 2021 He worked on King Lear at St Louis Shakespeare Festival, featuring Andre De Shields. It was one of the first live theater productions in the USA since lockdown. In September 2021 was he worked on a new version of Quixote Nuevo at Round House Theatre.
Awards include: LA Ovation sound design for Lydia, at Mark Taper Forum (2009), Creative Capital Grant (2009) and Wattis Fund (2011) with Secos Y Mojados, InterMusic SF’s MGP (2016), and the San Francisco Arts Commission artist grant (2020) for the development his new composition Lost American Dream.
Frequent collaborators include: multimedia artists: Cause Collective, Violeta Luna, Naomi Rincon Gallardo; directors: Roberto G. Varea, Juliette A. Carrillo; dance companies: NAKA Dance Theater, Tim Rubel Human Shakes. Molina’s instruments, and multimedia collaborations were featured at SFMOMA, The Broad (LA), Oakland Museum of California, Mcloughlin Gallery, Asterisk Gallery, and SOMArts.
Bands he’s collaborated with: TAU (Berlin), Emanative (UK), El Paso (Peru), The Pyramids (Strut Records), Ackmoor/Molina Duet. Molina’s bands are: Impuritan, Transient, and Ghosts and Strings. He teaches sound design to youth and is a sound engineer at Brava Theater Center (SF).
Molina believes the recording studio is just another instrument, but with infinite possibilities. He combines it with his large collection of instruments and composition skills to deliver non-conventional and moving scores which draw in the viewer/listener without upstaging the visual or text element. Every soundtrack is unique and sensitive to each project’s needs.
He is also a seasoned studio and live sound engineer who delivers top quality results whether it be a rock band’s album, theater production, radio, sound art installation, or film soundtrack.