Bio
Dave Slonaker is a film and TV orchestrator, arranger, and composer and leader of the Dave Slonaker Big Band. His album, Intrada, featuring his compositions and arrangements, received a 2013 GRAMMY® nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.
In his work as a film and TV orchestrator, arranger, and composer, he has orchestrated and arranged for many Hollywood composers including John Addison, David Bell, Steve Bramson, Bruce Broughton, Danny Elfman, Joel McNeely, Alan Silvestri, Larry Rosenthal, and many others. Film credits include orchestration for many popular films including Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Oz the Great and Powerful, Alice in Wonderland, Spider-Man, Air Force One. He has also orchestrated, arranged, and composed music for TV and animation including Jag, Murder, She Wrote, and the Tiny Toons Adventures cartoon series.
Working in film and television has its rewards, but Slonaker had a compelling need to express himself through his own jazz compositions and arrangements. He formed the Dave Slonaker Big Band to perform his music, gaining a GRAMMY® nomination for his recording, Intrada, in 2013 for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album.
As a jazz composer and arranger, Dave’s compositions and arrangements have been performed by Clark Terry, the Woody Herman and Count Basie Orchestras, as well as many other soloists and bands. Before moving to Hollywood, Dave was composer-in-residence at the Strasenburgh Planetarium of the Rochester Museum and Science Center, composing electronic soundtracks in an eclectic blend of music genres for worldwide distribution. . Concurrently he was a freelance trombonist and the Instructor of Low Brass at the State University of New York in Geneseo, New York.
Dave grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Handed down a trombone by his father, he studied trombone and piano as a youth. Curious about classical, jazz, and popular styles of music, he was determined to study both classical and jazz composition and performance. He earned a Bachelor of Music Degree in Trombone and Composition at Indiana University, had advanced graduate study in composition at the University of Pennsylvania, and received a Masters Degree from the Eastman School of Music.
Believing that passing the craft of composing and arranging to a new generation is important, Dave has taught or given master classes at USC, the Eastman School of Music, the ASCAP Television & Film Scoring Workshop, the Los Angeles Ravel Orchestral Study Group, and the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers (ASMAC) in which he currently serves on the Board of Directors.