David Finkelstein
David Finkelstein began playing the piano at the age of eleven. He has been a dance musician since 1982. He has played at every major studio and dance program in New York and frequently accompanies auditions at The Ailey School.
As a teacher, David has offered classes in Music for Dancers and Improvisation Technique for dancers, actors and musicians. He has been on the faculty of City College, Marymount Manhattan College, and Movement Research, where he was Artist in Residence. He currently teaches Music for Dancers at The Ailey School.
Finkelstein is also the Artistic Director of Lake Ivan Performance Group, an experimental theater group which has presented more than thirty of his original works since 1982, at venues such as Symphony Space, BACA, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Dance Space, Theater for the New City, The Ailey School, and many others.
His video work has been featured in the Dahlonega Film Festival, Exground, Valley fest, Big MiniDV Festival, Park City Film Music Festival, the Puget Sound Cinema Society, the Downstream Film Festival, the Silver Lake Festival, EXP2, New Filmmakers, Bearded Child Festival, X-Fest, SinCiné, and the Robert Beck Memorial Cinema.
"Radiant Emanators" won "Best of Festival: Experimental" at the Berkeley Video and Film Festival in 2003, and "Born in Mid-Flight" won the Grand Festival Award there in 2004.
"Earth and Moon in Love" won "Best of Fest: Experimental" at the Putnam County Film and Video Festival, "Best Experimental Short" at the Brooklyn Arts Council Film Festival, "Best Of Festival: Experimental" at the Berkeley Video and Film Festival, and the "Silver Medal of Excellence" at the Park City Film Music Festival.
"Lovely Academic Slaughter Houses" won "Best of Festival: Experimental" at the Putnam County Film Festival.
He has been commissioned three times to create videos for the Out music Awards and these videos were subsequently shown on the Pride Vision cable network and the PBS series "Under the Pink Carpet."
