Dan Stern is a UK-based composer and improviser whose work explores polyphony as a form of listening-with. Performing on tenor saxophone, clarinet, piano and keyboard, he creates immersive, minimal sound environments that invite audiences into shared experiences of time, space and attention. Drawing on early polyphony, experimental improvisation and spatial sound practices, his music resists hierarchy and embraces multiplicity, offering alternative ways of hearing and being together.
His practice is grounded in PhD research into sonic relationality, in which he investigates how polyphonic improvisation can challenge dominant structures of listening and authorship. Working between post-structuralist thought, Black Studies and decolonial aesthetics, Stern explores how sound can enact forms of ethical and political relation through spatialised time.
He has collaborated widely across jazz, classical and interdisciplinary contexts, working with artists such as Dave Liebman, Tim Garland, Robert Mitchell, Gwilym Simcock and Andy Sheppard; with ensembles including the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Sinfonietta; and in cross-arts settings at institutions such as Central Saint Martins, as well as with multimedia artist Ed Berriman. His work has been presented across the UK and Europe in venues ranging from concert halls to experimental festivals.