Dustin Edward Howard is a three-time Heartland Emmy Award–winning composer, multi-instrumentalist, sound designer, producer, and music/audio educator based in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
As a composer, Howard moves fluidly between worlds — as comfortable performing analog scores in real time as he is building digital soundscapes in the studio. His influences run the gamut from vintage video games and '70s horror synth soundtracks to grunge, folk, prog and alternative rock, a range that has carried his work across television, film, games and radio, media and more. He earned Heartland Emmy Awards in 2021 and 2023 as part of the team behind Osiyo: Voices of the Cherokee People, the Cherokee Nation's acclaimed docuseries and one of the most awarded Indigenous-run programs in television. His credits also include music for Sesame Street, HBO, many award-winning independent films, indie video games, podcasts and audiobooks.
Howard has become known for reimagining classic cinema through live original scores at Tulsa's historic Circle Cinema — The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), The War of the Worlds (1953), and Nosferatu among them. His annual winter solstice performance of Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922) has grown into a Tulsa tradition now preparing to travel — Oklahoma City and Fayetteville are next. "Cloaked in black, surrounded by candles and smoke, Howard builds each score live — moving between synthesizers, guitar, drums, theremin, looped voices, and the theater's century-old two-story pipe organ — transforming silent film into something between concert and séance. " The Pickup called the experience riveting, praising the score's "layered complexity" and seamless instrument-to-instrument shifts.
He is the frontman and creative director of GROUCHO, a touring alt/psychedelic rock project pairing absurdist humor, recovery, and a spiritual framework with dark, cinematic themes. Howard began releasing music under the name in 2016 and formed the full band in 2020; GROUCHO has since drawn coverage from Tulsa World and News9, international press from outlets like Doomed Nation and Soundville, and radio play ranging from national college radio stations to home state radio like 93.1 RSU Radio, The Edge 104.5, and Oklahoma City's KATT 100.5, where the band has been championed by award-nominated DJ Jay Ramone.
Over two decades of playing, recording, and touring, Howard has worked with Grammy winner Trent Bell and Stephen Egerton of the Descendents, among others — experience he now channels into writing, recording, and producing GROUCHO entirely in-house. He also co-owns Noise Town Tulsa, a teaching, rehearsal/recording, and event space on historic Route 66, alongside fellow musician and producer C. M. Rodriguez.
Education is a defining thread of Howard's career. A fully vetted, approved teaching artist and vendor with the Oklahoma Arts Council and Epic Charter Schools, he teaches private lessons in music and production while dedicating much of his career to bringing creative music education to places of learning that are often overlooked — especially schools without existing music programs. He is currently leading, and raising funds and awareness for, an ongoing Songwriting and Production music program at Tulsa Boys' Home, built around music as a healing and therapeutic outlet. Over the years he has founded and led songwriting and recording programs at Street School (through the bART Foundation), Sapulpa Bartlett Alternative School, and area public libraries, and has run Recording 101 camps, Noise Town Tulsa's summer recording camp, and summer school music programs with Tulsa Public Schools — building partnerships with the Oklahoma Arts Council, nonprofits, and community sponsors to bring these programs to students at minimal or no cost.
In fall 2026, Howard joins the Cherokee Nation Film Institute as an instructor, spearheading the Institute's first ongoing Post-Production Sound course — a 40-credit-hour program training the next generation of sound professionals.
Howard is a BMI-affiliated songwriter and serves as a judge for the Western Heritage Music Awards. He is currently developing Exiting Plato's Cave, a docu-style podcast exploring consciousness, UFOs, parapsychology, and socially solvable human problems — sitting down with researchers, scientists, musicians and original thinkers.
For scoring, sound design, education programs, and collaborations: dehoward23@gmail.com or visit the contact/donation page for other questions