My practice connects with other humans in music
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Dorian Wallace is a composer, pianist, and music therapist recognized for his stylistic versatility, improvisational skill, and unwavering commitment to sociopolitical struggles. In addition to a successful solo career, he regularly collaborates with artists such as Bonita Oliver, John Sanborn, Paul Pinto, Pamela Z, Charlotte Mundy, Frank London, and Nicholas Finch. He has provided musical services for political figures such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jarvis Tyner, Angela Davis, Gerald Horne, Blade Nzimande, and Sing In Solidarity.
Dorian spearheaded the New Music Organizing Caucus, a labor advocacy organization confronting systemic inequities in contemporary classical music, and is a co-founding artistic director of Tenth Intervention, a progressive new music collective probing the nexus of social justice and community engagement through contemporary music, with violinist, curator, and activist Hajnal Pivnick.
Alongside activist and healer DeMarisa Steeley, Dorian operates Mederi Muzik. This group takes a radical arts-based approach to healing psychological trauma, both individually and transgenerationally, involving personal and collective action to promote living with respect and dignity. Together, they facilitate music therapy and mindfulness programs at Rikers Island, H.O.L.L.A., the American Humanist Association, About Face, and Footsteps.
He draws on his extensive musical experience and therapeutic expertise, covering a broad creative spectrum with the incarcerated community, including spoken word, hip hop, and free improvisation. Their podcast of the same name explores the integrative effects of music and other creative practices and their therapeutic impact on the trauma of colonialism, classism, racism, mass incarceration, and culture. Dorian's Mode, his weekly Twitch stream, explores the intersection between political music and spontaneous improvisation.
One of New York City's most sought-after dance accompanists, Wallace has played for Martha Graham Dance Company, Doug Varone and Dancers, Juilliard, New York University, Columbia University, and many others. He teaches Music for Dancers I & II at the Martha Graham School and is a guest teaching artist for the Mark Morris Dance Accompaniment Training Program.
Dorian received a Bachelor of Arts in Music Therapy from Montclair State University, where he studied with Drs.
Abrams and Michael Viega. He interned at the Mount Sinai Beth Israel Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine and the M.J.H.S. Hospice and Palliative Care and completed Level 1 training in Guided Imagery and Music from the Atlantis Institute for Consciousness and Music.
Rikers Island Corrections Facility, New York, NY Dec 2021 - Jun 2022
Chief Passion Officer & Music Therapist
Music Therapist & Meditation Teacher
Aug 2022 Psychological First Aid: National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Jan 2022 Prison Mindfulness Certification
Jan 2022 Violent Extremists: Life After Hate Training Certificate
Aug 2021 Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy Practitioner / The Priority Academy
Feb 2021 CBMT Board Certification
Dec 2020 Level 1 Guided Imagery and Music / Atlantis Institute for Consciousness
2009
U.S. Army School Of Music - Piano Performance
2009-2020
United States Army National Guard
63rd Army Band (New Jersey) / 122nd Army Band (Ohio)
2005 – 2010
Kent State University - Music Composition
2016 - 2019
Montclair State University- B.A. Music Therapy
