A Conversation With Daniel Fishkin

Dan has over 27 years of transactional business law experience. His expertise includes complex negotiations, corporate finance transactions, mergers and acquisitions as well as real estate development projects.

Fishkin utilized the Lady’s Harp to compose Composing the Tinnitus Suites, a concert series exploring hearing damage as aesthetic. Ellen Fullman played her Long String Instrument and performed alongside Fishkin.

Early Life and Education

After developing tinnitus, Fishkin embarked upon a life-long project of exploring sound and hearing damage. He built instruments that allowed him to interact with it more directly – such as The Lady’s Harp which uses a mixer feedback system to vibrate strings similar to how ears do.

Fishkin’s research into tinnitus has introduced him to many collaborators. This includes Philadelphia hearing damage artists, sound artist Ellen Fullman and members of ensemble mise-en. In addition, he has collaborated with composer Maryanne Amacher and multi-instrumentalist Mark Stewart on projects.

He holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and currently teaches analog synthesis at Bard College. Aside from his artistic practice, he is also highly esteemed corporate attorney, having extensive experience negotiating and closing complex business transactions ranging from club/hotel development, real estate financing/acquisitions/leasing agreements/licensing deals/sponsorship agreements/licensing contracts etc.

Professional Career

He has developed a series of concerts titled, Composing the Tinnitus Suites, that explore the aesthetics of hearing loss. For this project, he collaborates with musicians whose hearing may also be unstable to craft the soundscape for these concerts. Most recently he worked with Ellen Fullman, an instrument builder specialized in long string instruments used to explore the acoustics of large resonant spaces.

Fishkin holds an MA in Music Composition from Wesleyan University and taught analog synthesis at Bard College. Additionally, he currently studies PhD composition and computer music at the University of Virginia. As an inventor and commercial seller of daxophones he created himself, Fishkin sells these musical instruments worldwide while studying directly under their creator, Hans Reichel. Furthermore, Fishkin is a highly experienced transactional attorney with expertise in mergers & acquisitions, business law and real estate development transactions.

Achievement and Honors

Fishkin has garnered international acclaim, earning awards from both the American Studies Association and Elmira College for her work. Furthermore, she has pioneered creating crossroads for international scholarly collaboration and exchange.

She has written and edited 46 books, such as Lighting Out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain’s Use of Satire and Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African-American Voices. Additionally, she has published numerous articles, essays and columns on her topic of expertise.

She draws upon her tinnitus to fuel her musical compositions and is an ambassador of Charite, a German foundation dedicated to tinnitus research. Additionally, Philadelphia Hearing Damage commissioned her to design instruments to study hearing loss and damage. For this task she designed daxophone tongues reminiscent of creatures seen in Neon Genesis Evangelion anime as well as working alongside sound artist Ellen Fullman.

Personal Life

In 2008, composer Daniel Fishkin developed tinnitus, an unintelligible ringing in his ears not caused by sound. This loss of hearing informed his artistic work and led to him creating the Lady’s Harp – an electro-acoustic room-sized harp designed to model inner ear sounds as well as sounds without an audible origin.

Fishkin’s concerts explore the aesthetics of hearing damage and often feature musicians with unstable hearing. He teaches daxophone, an instrument invented in the 1980s by Hans Reichel, as well as selling customized instruments worldwide.

His latest endeavor, Composing the Tinnitus Suites, involves concerts and immersive installations featuring Ellen Fullman – the inventor of the Long String Instrument – who will perform her version. She plays her instrument by strumming its wires using her fingertips rosined with rosin.

Net Worth

Anybody familiar with SEO (search engine optimization) would have come across Rand Fishkin. He is widely acknowledged as an industry thought leader and co-founded Moz back in 2004.

Fishkin specializes in search engine optimization tools and resources, and is often seen at digital marketing conferences as an expert speaker.

He is also an active writer, having written multiple books on digital marketing. Additionally, his online personality videos have gained fame on YouTube. According to estimates, Moz and SparkToro – two companies co-founded by him – together reportedly hold an estimated net worth between $18-20 Million.