"wild, unsettling, spine-tingling ... a yummy, curdly tonality."
--Soprano Carrie Henneman Shaw on Some Details of Hell
My music is about exploding boundaries in the continuing search for transcendence. These metamorphoses manifest themselves through the physical instrumentation, the musical development of material and the dramatic through-line of the compositions. I envision a pitch-universe inclusive of all aesthetics, where the common ground between spectrally-based bell tones and tonal consonances is highlighted and juxtaposed with non-tonal pitch sets and crunchy dissonances. Throughout my music, natural phenomena are reflected in melodies reminiscent of bird calls and in pulsing yet unpredictable rhythms similar to tidal wave patterns. Disjointed moments of pure sound coalesce into regions of clarity defined by funk-style grooves or long sinuous melodies. I seek to create works with a high degree of energy gleaned from my early avidity for experimental post-punk goth and progressive musicians like Bauhaus , Joy Division and Brian Eno , which inspired my interest in art music. The drama of performance and narration is always foremost in my mind, reflecting my years working in theater as a director, producer and stagehand. My deep love for the visual arts has led me to collaborate on multi-media installation works.
Composer David Smooke currently resides in Baltimore, Maryland, where he teaches music theory and composition at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University . His honors include those from BMI , the National Association of Composers USA , the MacDowell Colony , the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts , the Atlantic Center for the Arts , SCI/ASCAP and the Tampa Bay Composers’ Forum. He has composed commissions for groups and individuals including the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) , CUBE , pianist Amy Dissanayake , and cellist/singer Victoria Bass, and has worked with such ensembles and performers as the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra , the Pacifica String Quartet , eighth blackbird , the California EAR Unit , the University of Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players (now called Contempo ), Syzygy , the University of Iowa Center for New Music , conductor Cliff Colnot , and cellist/singer Jody Redhage . His music has been featured on festivals including those hosted by Queens College (Aaron Copland School of Music), Rice University, Northwestern University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Louisiana State University, the University of Iowa, S.U.N.Y. Buffalo, Bowdoin College and East Carolina University.
Previously he taught music theory as Visiting Assistant Professor at Ohio University ; and music composition, history and theory at the Chicago College of Performing Arts of Roosevelt University—where he was nominated for a Roosevelt Recognition Award for Excellence in Teaching—and at the Merit School of Music . He has also taught at the University of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, the Birch Creek Music Performance Center and the Sun Valley Summer Symphony Workshops. He received an M.M. degree from the Peabody Conservatory, a B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where he received the Century Fellowship, the highest fellowship offered by the Humanities Division. His composition teachers have included Shulamit Ran , Marta Ptaszynska , David Rakowski (I highly recommend this webpage), Robert Hall Lewis , Ronald Caltabiano , and Richard Wernick .
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