Biography

Costas Dafnis is a composer and artist based in California. His work has been awarded by New Music USA, the American Prize, International Music Prize for Excellence in Composition, and the Dallas Winds. His Mariana for soprano and processed underwater audio was featured by NOAA/PMEL in an article called “The Music of Challenger Deep” and his 2019 set of Cajun-language art songs is the subject of soprano Nancy Carey’s series of DMA lecture recitals and dissertation. Upcoming premieres include works for the SoCal Brass Consortium, the Greek Chamber Music Project and the Ferndale Public Schools Orchestra, a new piece for wind ensemble, theater and dance companies. His orchestral work was featured at the 2019 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music’s In the Works series and his music for media will be heard in the indie feature Overwhelm The Sky and at Cinequest in CR Coppola’s VR short, Universe At Play. Costas plays mandolin, designs experimental instruments, conducts and curates New Music at New Vision and lectures in film at San Francisco Art Institute.