Download Bio - David Mansfield

DAVID MANSFIELD | BIO
Son of classical musicians and formally trained as a violinist, David was first
signed (by the legendary Mary Martin), at sixteen, to Warner Bros. Records as a
member of "Quacky Duck And His Barnyard Friends", along with founding
members Dan and Daegal Bennett, sons of singer Tony Bennett.
At age 18, David joined Bob Dylan's band for four years, starting with the "Rolling
Thunder Revue". He recorded three albums with Dylan and appears on
numerous compilations and live albums, including "Biograph" and "Bob Dylan
Live 1975 The Bootleg Series Vol. 5". David appeared in the NBC special "Hard
Rain", and the feature film "Renaldo and Clara".
In 1976 David was signed to Arista and released three albums (two of which he
co-produced with T-Bone Burnett and Steven Soles) as a member of the critically
acclaimed "Alpha Band". He later went on to work with Burnett on his solo
albums and other projects, including writing the score for the feature film "Divine
Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood"
David is an award-winning film and television composer with many major scoring
credits. His score for the A&E mini-series “Broken Trail”, co-written with Van
Dyke Parks, was nominated for an Emmy. David’s first film score was for the
notorious epic "Heaven's Gate". It led to a four-film collaboration with director
Michael Cimino, which resulted in a Golden Globe nomination for his score for
the Oliver Stone-penned "Year Of The Dragon".
Other long-standing relationships are with the esteemed Mexican auteur Arturo
Ripstein, and with Maggie Greenwald ("Ballad of Little Jo", "Songcatcher"). His
score for Ripstein's "Deep Crimson (Profundo Carmesi)" won David the Golden
Ocelot at the Venice film festival (Best Musical Score); this honor was repeated
at the Havana Film Festival. His work with Greenwald is also highly acclaimed;
on her film "Songcatcher" (a music-centric film about song collecting in the
Appalachian Mountains), David not only wrote the score, but researched and
supervised all of the traditional ballad singing and folk music in the film.
David has written scores in a multitude of styles for many other film directors as
well, including Harold Ramis, Walter Hill, Thomas Schlamme, Frank Pierson,
Robert Duvall, and Gavin O'Connor. Some of the many television directors David
has worked with include Glenn Jordan, Jeff Bleckner, Tim Hunter, and Robert
Allan Ackerman.
David produced the soundtrack albums for the films "Heaven's Gate", "Year of
the Dragon", "The Sicilian", "Desperate Hours", "Ballad Of Little Jo", and “Broken
Trail”, among others. Excerpts from his scores for "Heaven's Gate" and "The
Sicilian" have been performed at the Royal Albert Hall and Carnegie Hall,
respectively.
David continues to be a world-class recording and performing musician. A
founding member of "Bruce Hornsby and the Range", David was awarded an
RIAA platinum album and a Grammy Award for "The Way It Is", as well as as
RIAA gold albums for Bob Dylan's "Desire" and "Hard Rain". He performs and
records with a wide range of artists, playing a variety of instruments including
electric/acoustic/classical/slide guitars, violin, viola, mandolin, mandocello, Irish
bouzouki, pedal steel guitar, lap steel, banjo and Dobro/National resonator
guitars.
www.david-mansfield.com