Dale Osterman is a composer, cellist, and electronic musician from Connecticut interested in creating unique sound worlds and exploring the meaning-making potential of music. Dale’s work makes use of memorable motivic and melodic while organizing pieces around textural and timbral changes in addition to the traditional Western classical emphasis on harmonic structures. His process is inspired by an understanding that musical material exists on a spectrum from silence, to noise, to pure musical tone; as well as an interest in various musical genres. His work is rooted in experimentalism, electronic music-making practices, and his training as a contemporary classical composer, all seasoned with a healthy pinch of the energy of vernacular and popular music, the freedom of improvisation, and the fascinating contrasts between chaos and stillness found in the American avant-garde.

While Dale’s work has been performed in concert halls throughout the US – including at the Hartt School of Music, the Walden School’s creative musician’s retreat in New Hampshire, the Fresh Inc Festival in Wisconsin, Connecticut Summerfest, and the Warner Theater in Torrington, Connecticut – his current area of interest is in recorded media. He has been working on a variety of electronic music projects, instrumental compositions designed for the recording studio, video projects, and a singer-songwriter EP, all of which he hopes to release independently within the coming years.

In addition to his work as a composer, Dale is an active cellist and performer. Though the group is currently on an indefinite hiatus, Dale’s position as a founding member of the genre-defying electro-acoustic trio Dissidents remains a high-point of his career. Their two albums, Becomes Noise and Ripples, contain some of Dale’s best work as both a composer and cellist. Dale also does freelance work throughout Litchfield County, and has been the principle cellist in the Torrington Symphony Orchestra since 2017.

Dale holds a bachelor’s degree in Audio and Music Production from Western Connecticut State University and a master’s degree in Composition from the Hartt School of Music. His composition instructors have been David Macbride, Ken Steen, and Kevin Jay Isaacs; he has studied audio production with Douglas O’Grady and Edward Dzubak; and his numerous cello instructors have included Richard Vaudrey, Mariel Roberts, and Harmon Steiner.

Image by SnoStudios Photography