David Aguila – Trumpet / Electronic Beatmaking

David Aguila is a performer, composer, and audio engineer based in San Diego, California. Aguila’s multifaceted practice focuses on the intersection of trumpet, electronics, and music production; working in contemporary, experimental, electro-acoustic, and improvised music. His current research is focused on parametric and gestural notation and performance, sound projection practices, and alternative approaches to trumpet pedagogy. He has performed in the United States, Mexico, France, Germany, Iceland, and Colombia.

Aguila received his Bachelor’s degree (2013) in Trumpet Performance at the Eastman School of Music. He performed with the Eastman Wind Ensemble, Philharmonia Orchestra, and Musica Nova ensembles. Aguila performed at the Rochester Percussion Festival, premiering Michael Burrit’s concerto for percussion and wind orchestra, and was Principal Trumpet in the Prismatic Debussy Festival. In 2011 David was on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, during the segment Aguila solved the Rubik’s Cube with one hand while playing Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto.He received an MFA from CalArts (2015), Aguila’s studies focused on contemporary trumpet and spatial and electroacoustic composition. During his time at CalArts, he performed with the Vinny Golia Large Ensemble, Sonic Boom Ensemble, Stockhausen Festiva (2015), and the New Millennium Orchestra at REDCAT, performing the music of Yotam Haber, Gloria Coates, and Jani Christou.

Recently, Aguila earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in Contemporary Music Performance from the University of California, San Diego. His dissertation focuses on collaboration between performers and composers, audio production, composition, and trumpet in theatrical settings.

Aguila has been a trumpet participant at The Center for Advanced Music Studies at Chosen Vale (2014, 2018, 2022 & 2023), Stockhausen Courses and Concerts; Sound Projectionist (2017) and Trumpet (2019), Ensemble MusikFabrik Brass Academy (2019) and the Darmstadt Ferienkurse; Trumpet (2021). He has worked with Marco Blaauw, Clément Saunier, Craig Morris, Mireia Farres, Christine Chapman, Bruce Collings, Melvyn Poore, Kathinka Pasveer, Peter Evans, Isabel Mundry, and George Lewis. He has recently performed with Ricky Martin in Mexico as part of his orchestra concerts.

In the realm of audio production, Aguila works as a freelance recording, mixing, and mastering engineer. He has recently recorded a chamber work of piano, percussion, and violin for composer Sarah Hennies’s album Bodies of Water (2024). He has done live sound, recording engineering, mixing, and mastering for The Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar in 2023. His first solo album, Configurations of the System was released in 2024 on BandCamp. Aguila has also performed and mastered with the band Snow Nerds on It’s Really Rampart and Midnight Masquerades (Orenda Records), performed and mastered with saxophonist and composer Ted Taforo on You Are, Belief in Reality, and Life as Reptiles. Performed with trumpeter Ethan Marks as a duo Laptop+Trumpet releasing an EP Blended Metal (Cosmic Primitive Records), has done a remix for King Britt’s A Re-Discovery (The Buddy System). He can be heard with The Industry on Hopscotch (The Industry Records), Lei Liang’s opera Inheritance (Albany Records), and Hearing Landscapes Hearing Icescapes (New Focus Recordings). Aguila is a masterclass teacher for Point Blank Music School in Los Angeles and online teaching courses in Audio Mastering, Introduction to Audio Production, and Advanced Composition.