Brooklyn-based fiddler-composer Dana Lyn has received commissions from Brooklyn Rider, the National Arts Council of Ireland, the Apple Hill String Quartet, A Far Cry, and Palaver Strings. She has written music for short films, New York Times’ audio stories and for dance; her own musical projects include the sextet “Mother Octopus“ as well as collaborations with actor Vincent D’Onofrio and Irish poet Louis De Paor. Dana was an artist-in-residence at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in the Spring of 2017, a member of the Joe’s Pub Working Group in 2018, and an awardee of the American Composers Forum Create Commission, also in 2018. Most recently, she was a recipient of a 2020 NYFA Women’s Fund Award for Media, Music and Theater and a Sundance Composer Lab Fellow in 2021, and her radio play with De Paor received a Gold Award at the 2022 New York Festivals Radio Awards.
Dana is also a well-versed Irish fiddle player and has visited Ireland over thirty times in her study of the East Galway and Clare styles of fiddle playing. She has recorded three albums of traditional Irish music with guitarist Kyle Sanna and has toured with Mick Moloney and The Green Fields of America, Susan McKeown, Johnny Cunningham, guitarist Junji Shirota and Cherish the Ladies. She has also composed string arrangements that were recorded by renowned fiddler Martin Hayes and the Brooklyn Rider String Quartet.
She is in Taipei performing with the abridged version of Taylor Mac’s 24 Decades of Popular Music in 24 Hours at the Taiwan International Arts Festival.