Dafna Naphtali earned both a B.M. in Vocal Performance in 1992 and her Masters in Music Technology in 1996 at NYU Steinhardt. She was Chief Engineer of the NYU Music Technology Studios from 1996-1998. A member of the Music Technology faculty for several years, Professor Naphtali is an academic advisor for both undergraduate and graduate students in the Music Technology program.
Professor Naphtali is a sound-artist/improviser-composer who comes from a truly eclectic background of music-making. As a singer/guitarist/electronic musician she performs and composes using her custom Max/MSP/Jitter programs for sound processing of voice and other instruments that she has been writing since 1992. Besides her composing and improvised projects, she co-leads the digital chamber punk ensemble, What is it Like to be a Bat? with Kitty Brazelton. She's received commissions and awards from Brecht Forum, NY Foundation for the Arts, NY State Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer, Experimental TV Center, American Composers Forum, and has held a residency at STEIM (Holland). She regularly gives workshops and guest teaches at universities including Bard College, the School of Visual Arts, Columbia University, University of Miami, University of Massachusetts (Lowell), University of Nijmegan and Institute of Sonology (Netherlands) and she has a long history at New York University. She has performed her work in high-profile venues around New York and in Europe, Israel, Russia, and recently appeared at the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival.
As a freelancer, Professor Naphtali has been teaching, programming and consulting about Max/MSP at Harvestworks since 1996, and was a programmer for two years for many artists and her own projects at Engine 27 (a multi-channel sound gallery). She has done sound design and/or programming work for the projects of Jin Hi Kim, Shelley Hirsch, Pamela Z, Phoebe Legere, Fred Frith, Jim Staley, Henry Threadgill, Steve Coleman, Chico Freeman and others. She has collaborated and performed with Lukas Ligeti, David First, Joshua Fried, Ras Moshe, and Hans Tammen. Dafna can be heard with Mechanique(s) on a release on In-situ ('07) and was featured vocalist on José Halac's CD ‘Dance of 1000 Heads' (Tellus), as well as on her acclaimed release with What is it Like to be a Bat? on Tzadik/Oracles (4 Stars, All Music Guide).