Born: Cleveland, Ohio, 1947

Resides: San Francisco

Education :

• New School for Social Research, New York, B.A. 1970
• Cleveland Institute of Music, 1967
• John Carroll University, Cleveland, 1965-67

Fellowships:

• Honorary Research Fellow, Department of Electroacoustic Music,
• University of Birmingham, 2004
• National Endowment for the Arts, 1990-91
• John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 1986-87
• Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, 1985-86
• Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD, 1983-84

Teaching:

• Academy of Media Arts, Cologne  (since 2001 to 2003)
• California College of Arts and Crafts, 2002\
• San Francisco Art Institute, 1997
• Sorbonne, Paris (1994-95)

Consulting:

• NBBJ, Seatttle -  2002 to the present
• California Academy of Sciences  -1988 and 2004
• Düsseldorfer Schauspiel Haus – 2002

Gallery:

Haunch of Venison
6 Haunch of Venison Yard, London, W1K 5ES
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7495 5050

Selected Commissions and Sound Sculptures:

• Speeds of Tiime, Palace of Westminster,  London, 2004
• Primal Soundings, Leeds City Gallery and Contemporary Art Society,  2004
• Speeds of Time,  BBC,   London,  2003
• Falling Echoes, Creative Time, New York, 2002
• Acoustical Visions of Venice,  48th Venice Biennale,  1999
• Wave Memories, Trafalgar Square, National Maritime Museum, London, 1999
• Time Fountain,   Fundació Antoni Tapies,  Barcelona, & Reina Sofia,  Madrid,   1995
• Sound Island, Arc de Triomphe, Paris, 1994
• Soundbridge Cologne - Kyoto, 1993 - simultaneously installed in Cologne and Kyoto at the Museum Ludwig and National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto
• Vertical Water, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1991
• Landscape Soundings,  Vienna Festival, Kunsthistorisches Museum,  1990
• Sound Sculptures through the Golden Gate, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1987
• Entfernte Züge (Distant Trains), Berliner Künstlerprogramm des DAAD, West Berlin, 1984
• Oscillating Steel Grids along the Brooklyn Bridge,  World Trade Center and Brooklyn Museum,  New York, 1983
• Sound Recycling Sculpture, Akademie der Künste, West Berlin and Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris,  1980
• Sound Sculpture with Resonators, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1978
• Kirribilli Wharf, Australian Broadcasting Corp and Sydney Opera House, 1977

Selected Permanent Installations:

• Primal Soundings, Leeds City Gallery and Contemporary Art Society,  2004
• Musical Information Network Lyon,  Lyon Tramway Line 1,  2001 
• Echo Phases,  Simeon Properties Emeryville  Tech Center, Emeryville, CA 2000
• Wave Phases at Chesil Beach, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, U.K., 1999
• Sound Sculpture with a Sequence of Level Crossings, 1982/1997, digitally remastered eight-channel installation, collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• Wave Trains, 1996, Mülheimer Brücke subway station, Colgone, Germany
• Spiraling Sound Axis, 1993, North Carollina State Revenue Building, Raleigh
• Earth Tones, 1992, Oliver Ranch, Sonoma County, CA 

Selected Compact Discs:

• Il Sonore, published by the French Ministry of Culture, Paris, 1994
• Satellite Sound Bridge Cologne-San Francisco, published by Wergo, Mainz, Germany, 1994
• Virtual Nature, published by the Austrian State Radio (ORF), Vienna, 1994
• Landscape Soundings, published by the Austrian State Radio (ORF), Vienna, 1990
• Kirribilli Wharf, published by Editions Block, Berlin, 1988

Selected Environmental Sound Recording and Design Projects:

• “Ants”  sounds of Army Ants and their habitat in Trinidad,  California Academy of Sciences, 2004
• Sounds of the British Coast, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, England, 1997 to 1999
• Sounds of the Old City of Jerusalem,  DAAD Berlin,  1995 to 1996
• Australian Rainforests, Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1988
• Farallon Island Soundscapes, California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, 1988
• Sounds of Hawaii, Hawaii Public Radio, Honolulu, 1986
• Acoustic Journey, An exhibition about  traditional Japanese Sounds on the Verge of Extinction,  Wacoal Art Center, Tokyo, 1985
• Rainforests of Thailands, Jungle World Exhibit, New York Zoological Society, 1984
• Soundscapes, 365 Four Minute Radio Programs on Environmental Sound, National Public Radio,  1982 to 1983
• Wild California, Natural Sounds of California, Oakland Museum Natural Sciences Department, 1979
• Australian Sound Studies, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1973 to 1978

Selected Bibliography:

• Julian Crowley,  Interview with Bill Fontana,  The Wire,  April, 2004
• Mary Blume, ""Portrait of Bill Fontana,"" International Herald Tribune, July 9, 1994
• Bill Fontana, The Relocation of Ambient Sound, Leonardo Volume 20 # 2, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1987
• John Rockwell, ""Sound Island,"" New York Times, June 18, 1994
• John Hanhardt, Heidi Grundmann, and Werner Fenz, Landscape Soundings, Vienna Festival, Vienna, 1990"