Born in Cleveland, Bill Fontana studied music and philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York and then traveled to Australia, Japan, and Germany before devoting himself to composition. He began creating sound sculptures in 1976. These use the urban environment as a vivid source of musical information, all of which have the power to summon a visual imagination in the listener's mind. His work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Tate Modern, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Among his most famous works are: Distant Trains, Satellite Ear Bridge Cologne-San Francisco, The Sound of an Unblown Flute, Panoramic Echoes and Acoustical Visions of the Golden Gate Bridge.