Biographie

With several years of piano instruc­tion as a child, composer Dana Carlile took up playing again as a hobby after finishing graduate school. At the suggestion of a friend Dana tried composing. After his second period of composing in the late 1990s, he had completed over 80 pieces of piano music and produced four CDs including: Preludes for Silence and Darkness, The Ballet of Phantoms, A Lullaby for Innocence and A Paris Moon for the Last Waltz. In 2005, he began working with director John Jopson providing pieces for the sound track of the film Les Absintheurs.

Dana’s grandfather Ferdinand Sorenson, a professional musician, conductor and music educator, composed as a hobby. Born in Grenaa Denmark in 1882, Ferdinand studied violin with his father Lars Sorenson, Norwegian violinist Willard Weihe and Mose Christensen. In Boise, Idaho  Ferdinand played in the Christensen orchestra, string quartet and taught dancing at the Christensen dance school.  Ferdinand attended the New York College of Music and studied cello with William Ebann form 1905 to 1908. In Spokane, Washington he conducted a Vaudeville theater orchestra, played in the Gesner-Sorenson String Quartet, Herbst String Quartet, Spokane Citizen Band, Chuck Whitehead Orchestra and in the Spokane Symphony Orchestra. The Spokane Symphony performed his work for string orchestra The American Desert in 1922. Moving to Portland, Oregon in 1924 he played in the Portland Symphony Orchestra.  Ferdinand conducted community orchestras and the women’s orchestra at Marylhurst College. As an adjunct professor, Ferdinand taught over the years at Pacific University, the University of Oregon and Portland State University. He died in 1966.  In 2008 Dana produced a recording of his grandfather’s string quartet music entitled  The Age  of Innocence.

 
Dana Carlile