Kylee Pastore Asirvatham
When Adjunct Professor David Cieri first moved to New York City, he was making a living playing piano at a dingy hotel on the Upper West Side. One night, while playing, he met Erik Ewers, a friendly-looking man who asked him about his plans for music. Cieri shared that he wanted to create music for documentary films, a pursuit that combined his two passions—music and history. Before leaving, Cieri recounts, Ewers gave him an impish smile, said little else, and left a note on the piano as he walked out—a torn-off piece of letterhead from Florentine Films with a phone number scribbled on it.
It turned out Ewers was one of Ken Burns’s long-time film editors and a director. That chance encounter became a turning point. By 2007, Cieri was working with Ken Burns and Florentine Films, launching his career as a film composer. Over the years he has collaborated with renowned filmmakers like the Ewers Brothers, Barak Goodman, and George Lucas, contributing to award-winning projects. He has recorded 19 albums, the last ten of which were released by Ropeadope Records. He has worked on major live documentary projects with Pulitzer Prize winners like playwright Lynn Nottage and poet Yusef Komunyakaa. Two of his scores, Booker’s Place and Oklahoma City, were shortlisted for Oscar nominations. He also contributed live scores for The Paris Review podcasts and recently scored the audiobook Lights On by Annika Harris.
Aside from teaching the courses Music and Film and Film Scoring here at CCNY, Cieri recently joined forces with Yo-Yo Ma and Johnny Gandelsman to compose the score for Ken Burns’s six-part documentary The American Revolution, which is premiering on PBS in November 2025. His role involved creating original compositions to convey the essence of the Revolutionary War.
The gift of stillness
Cieri’s mentor and friend the jazz pianist Art Lande taught him the value of stillness and deep listening. Lande encouraged Cieri to focus inward, a lesson that shaped his approach to music. Drawing on Mark Twain’s observation that the difference between the right word and the almost-right word is like lightning versus a lightning bug, Cieri aims to capture that lightning through intentional listening. Cieri’s approach to composing for The American Revolution reflects the magic of this approach. To capture the essence of the Revolutionary War, he drew inspiration from a fife and drum group he overheard in Prospect Park, channeling their melodies into his creative process at the piano. Using a diverse range of instruments—frame drums, French horns, violins, cellos, piano, and synthesizers—he blended original compositions with traditional songs. Cieri points out that the subtle influence of that fife and drum music permeates every piece and grounds the score in the historical era while adding emotional depth.
How childhood games transformed into meaningful scores
Cieri’s connection to music began in childhood. He would use still images from magazines, newspapers, and family photos as "sheet music," improvising melodies that changed the mood of the images. This early creative play evolved into a career where music enhances storytelling, bypassing the rational brain to evoke deep emotions. In The Roosevelts, for example, Cieri composed a theme for Eleanor Roosevelt inspired by still photographs of her. Imagining her endlessly climbing stairs, he crafted a stepwise melody to reflect her perseverance, followed by a section evoking a distant carnival. The music connects viewers to historical figures by conveying their inner lives.
Cieri’s journey from improvising melodies as a child to composing for groundbreaking documentaries demonstrates his deep commitment to storytelling through music. His work on The American Revolution continues his legacy of creating scores that resonate emotionally and historically, connecting audiences to the past in profound ways. As Cieri teaches the next generation of composers at CCNY, his dedication to music and history ensures that his unique approach will inspire others to craft their own soundtracks to history.
Filmmaker? Artist? Writer? Actor? Musician? Cieri’s advice to aspiring creatives is simple: “Find a place with cheap rent…” Truly though, by keeping overhead low, Cieri says, you gain the freedom to pursue what makes your life meaningful—whatever that pursuit may be.