Dr. David Aguila | Music Technology

 

David Aguila is a performer, composer, and audio engineer. His multifaceted practice focuses on the intersection of trumpet, electronics, and audio production; working in the fields of commercial, contemporary, experimental, electro-acoustic, jazz, and improvised music. His current research is focused on parametric and gestural notation, electro-acoustic performance, sound projection practices, and alternative approaches to trumpet pedagogy. Aguila has performed in Mexico, Germany, Iceland, and throughout the United States with his trio in^set and Duo Lingua. Aguila has recently been appointed as Assistant Professor in Music Technology and Commercial Music at the University of Central Missouri. 

Aguila received his Bachelor’s degree (2013) in Trumpet Performance at the Eastman School of Music. He performed with the Eastman Wind Ensemble, Philharmonia Orchestra, and Musica Nova ensembles. Aguila performed at the Rochester Percussion Festival, premiering Michael Burrit’s concerto for percussion and wind orchestra, and was Principal Trumpet in the Prismatic Debussy Festival. In 2011, David was on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. During the segment, Aguila solved the Rubik's Cube with one hand while playing Haydn's Trumpet Concerto.

He received an MFA from CalArts (2015), focusing on contemporary trumpet and on spatial and electroacoustic composition. During his time at CalArts, he performed with the Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, Sonic Boom Ensemble, Stockhausen Festival (2015) and the New Millennium Orchestra at REDCAT, performing the music of Yotam Haber, Gloria Coates, and Jani Christou.

In 2024, Aguila received a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Contemporary Music from the University of California San Diego (UCSD). While at UCSD, Aguila focused on experimental trumpet, electro-acoustics, audio engineering, and audio production. Aguila was a sought after audio engineer from colleagues in the music department at UCSD, performing, consulting, recording, and working on post production for numerous projects. 

Aguila has been a trumpet participant at The Center for Advanced Music Studies at Chosen Vale (2014, 2018, 2022 & 2023), Stockhausen Courses and Concerts; Sound Projectionist (2017) and Trumpet (2019), Ensemble MusikFabrik Brass Academy (2019) and the Darmstadt Ferienkurse; Trumpet (2021). He has worked with Marco Blaauw, Clément Saunier, Craig Morris, Mireia Farres, Christine Chapman, Bruce Collings, Melvyn Poore, Kathinka Pasveer, Peter Evans, Isabel Mundry, and George Lewis. 

In the realm of audio production, Aguila has performed and mastered with the band Snow Nerds on It’s Really Rampart and Midnight Masquerades (Orenda Records), performed and mastered with saxophonist and composer Ted Taforo on You Are, Belief in Reality, and Life as Reptiles, trumpeter Ethan Marks as a duo Laptop+Trumpet for their EP Blended Metal (Cosmic Primitive Records), has done a remix for for King Britt’s A Re-Discovery (The Buddy System). He can be heard with The Industry on Hopscotch (The Industry Records), Lei Liang’s opera Inheritance (Albany Records), and Hearing Landscapes Hearing Icescapes (New Focus Recordings). Aguila was an instructor at Point Blank Music School in Los Angeles and online teaching courses in Audio Mastering, Introduction to Audio Production, and Advanced Composition.