Dr. Drew Schnurr | Department of Media Arts

Dr. Drew Schnurr

Assistant Professor
Highlights: 
Music; Sound Design; Interactive Media; Sound Art; Sonic-Visual Aesthetics
Dual appointment in the Department of Media Arts and the College of Music
940-369-7286
Office: 
MU 2003

Andrew (aka Drew) Schnurr is a Los Angeles composer, sound artist, theorist, and performer blurring traditional lines in media and musical genre. Schnurr's wide-ranging experience in classical music, electronic music, rock, jazz, Latin music and other international music forms combined with his expertise in modern sound design, music production and audio technology, informs his diverse approach. Over the past decade, his concert works have been performed nationally and internationally at various festivals while his scoring and sound design work has been featured on various television networks, and internationally on film screens and in galleries. Schnurr's current creative work engages multiple levels of visual, music, and social culture.

Schnurr's composition work in film has been featured at international film festivals including Cannes, Raindance, Berlin, Feratum, Festival Internacional de Cine de Pasto, Rodando, Nocturna, Festival De Cine Acapulco, Honolulu, Santa Barbara, Monterey, Los Angeles, and New York. Schnurr's composing and sound design clients include the Los Angeles Philharmonic (designing the sound for the CELEBRATE: SALONEN website commemorating Esa-Pekka Salonen's tenure with the orchestra), Sony Ericsson, Dodge, Yamaha, Wieden + Kennedy, Nike, Hyundai, Southwest Airlines, Google, 20th Century Fox, Paramount Entertainment, Live Earth, and Much Music USA. Schnurr's electronic sound compositions composed in collaboration with artist Rebeca Mendez have been presented internationally including exhibits at the Beal Center for Art and Technology, the ARCO Madrid 29th International Contemporary Art Fair, the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (MACO), the Beijing Art Nova exhibition, the Venice 10th Arte Laguna Art Prize Exhibition, the IV Bienal Ciudad Juárez / El Paso Biennial 2015 exhibition, and the 2015 Istanbul Light Festival.

Schnurr was on faculty at the UCLA Department of Design Media Arts from 2005 to 2011 where he taught Sound and Sonic-Visual Aesthetics. In 2013, he completed his PhD in composition from UCLA and returned to serve on faculty at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, teaching Electronic Music and Sonic Arts until 2017. In 2018, he was appointed an Assistant Professor of Composition and Media at the University of North Texas -- a dual appointment in the College of Music and Department of Media Arts.

Schnurr has commercial releases of both film and concert music with German record label Coviello Classics (Hamburg) with distribution through NAXOS, and with Ludwig Records on iTunes. Planning is underway with production to begin in 2021 on Schnurr's next international release with Coviello.