About
#1 Billboard charting producer and mixing engineer David Fogel, Ph.D., is the CEO and Co-Founder of The Symphonina Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to spreading the joy of symphonic music to young audiences worldwide. David created the Symphonina genre of classical music, a small complete melodic symphony that plays in about 10 minutes with 3 or 4 movement, each the length of a typical streaming pop tune. More than 100 Symphoninas have been written worldwide as of 2026, with David composing 14 personally.
David has served as lead producer on all of the albums from The Symphonina Foundation, including Introducing the Symphonina (2023, #10 Billboard), Advent of the Symphonina (2024, #1 Billboard), and Ascension: Symphonina Rising (2025, Winner, Best Classical Album, World Entertainment Awards). He also served as remote conductor and founder of the International Symphonina Orchestra, which comprises players from all over the world who record their parts separately with David then doing the mixing to have them come together as one orchestral performance. He has captained numerous recording sessions with the Budapest Scoring Orchestra and has assisted with various orchestral arrangements. His Symphonina No. 7 was used to score the animated movie Spring, which earned a Gold Telly award and his original score for Eclipse 2017: Path of Totality played in 42 planetariums internationally.
In addition to his orchestral compositions, David has released two original jazz albums (Back in the Groove, 2019 and Showtime, 2022) as well as numerous jazz singles performing piano, sax, and guitar. His composition Never Far Away (Showtime) earned Best Piano Solo from the World Entertainment Awards (2024), and he has earned other independent awards from the InterContinental Music Awards, the Global Music Awards, the LIT Music Awards, and Clouzine Magazine.
David’s academic career in AI and engineering places him in a unique position to assess advances in artificial intelligence. He earned a Ph.D. in engineering sciences (UCSD) and has received numerous recognitions including an IEEE Technical Field Award, the Caj Astur Prize in Soft Computing, the San Diego Sigma Xi Distinguished Scientist Award, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. In 2008, he was named one of the top-100 most influential alumni in the then 50-year history of UCSD. A stalwart supporter of the importance of humanity in the arts, David has been invited to moderate educational panels at NAMM focusing on AI and music creation.
David has played professionally since the early 1990s. He played jazz piano weekly at the Catamaran hotel in San Diego from 1994-2010, and continues to perform piano and sax at private and public events. David also started The Symphonina Foundation podcast, and has conversed with more than 130 guests since starting in November, 2024.