Education
- DMA, Arizona State University
- MMus, McGill University
- BMus, Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University
Biography
Devin Arne is a composer, guitarist, and educator exploring the intersections of music, ecology, sound spatialization, and technology. His work spans sound installations, dance and film scoring, commercial media production, and concert music, with a commitment to interdisciplinary collaboration and environmentally engaged, practice-led research. He serves as Assistant Professor of Composition and Music Technology at the Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto.
As a composer, sound designer, and mix engineer, Arne has created music for global brands such as Samsung, Google, and Mercedes-Benz, alongside work for networks including Netflix, MTV, and PBS. This work has been sustained through strong connections with music publishers, production libraries, and post-production studios, including a longstanding collaboration with Duotone Audio. Arne has worked with alternative rap artist Dylan Owen as producer and mix engineer across a five-album portfolio that has inspired millions of fans. As a guitarist, he has performed with Dawn Robinson (En Vogue), Gary Thomas, and Ingrid Jensen, and recorded with The Phoenix Symphony.
His recent creative work is rooted in a commitment to the more-than-human world as an artistic partner, drawing conceptual and material inspiration from ecological systems. This orientation shaped his composition for TERRA: Bodies and Territories (2025), a site-specific dance work by choreographer Silvana Cardell supported by a grant from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, presented at Philadelphia's Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education. TERRA extends techniques developed in Unheard Voices (2021), an immersive sound installation driven by environmental sensor data. Arne has presented his research at venues including the Sonic Days Conference in Kolding, Denmark (2025) and the AES International Symposium on AI and the Musician at Berklee College of Music (2024).
Prior to his appointment at U of T, he served as Assistant Professor of Studio Composition at West Chester University, where he taught Studio Production, Film and Media Scoring, and Computer Music, building on a decade of teaching experience across institutions including Arizona State University and Miami Dade College. Originally from New York's Hudson Valley, he studied jazz performance at the Peabody Institute (BM) and McGill University (MM), and holds a Doctorate in Music and Interdisciplinary Digital Media from Arizona State University.