Bio

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New York City-based composer and instrumentalist David Crowell brings a “singular vision that transcends genre” (Exclaim) to diverse forms of composed and improvisational music, and has been praised for compositional work that is "notable for its crystalline sonic beauty" (Boston Globe). David’s chamber works have been performed at the Tribeca New Music Festival, the MATA Festival, Festival Internacional Chihuahua, the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival, ClefWorks Music Festival, the Everson Museum of Art, the Eastman School of Music, University of North Texas, California State University, University of Montana, University of Kentucky, and Brooklyn College by groups such as the JACK Quartet, the NOW Ensemble, Syracuse Symphony Quartet, Duquesne Contemporary Ensemble, Redshift Ensemble, and the University of Kentucky Percussion Society. In New York City, his work has been featured at the Museum of Modern Art, Merkin Hall, Le Poisson Rouge, the Stone, Barbes, Gallerie Icosahedron, Tonic, Galapagos Art Space, the Knitting Factory, Joe’s Pub and the Tank. As a composer, David has received recognition and support from ASCAP, Innova Recordings, the New York State Music Fund, Bang-on-a Can, MATA, Society for New Music, and ClefWorks. His piece, Waiting in the Rain for Snow, reviewed by Michael Quinn of the Classical Review as "a meditation on the crystallization of rain or ice into snow...a hymnal to a hidden process, the sense of transformation etched and sculpted by intricate, repeated figures in guitar and piano overlaid and compounded by shifting, drifting patterns in woodwinds" has been released by the NOW Ensemble on New Amsterdam Records. The Open Road, performed opening night by the JACK Quartet at the 2010 Tribeca New Music Festival, was hailed as “cinematographic” and “an inspired work” by the New York Times. In October 2011, a new work for multiple saxophones and electronics, Eucalyptus, was premiered at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art in conjunction with Carlito Carvalhosa’s exhibition, Sum of Days. A new recording featuring Eucalyptus will be released by Innova Recordings in Spring 2012.

In 2009, Innova Recordings (American Composers Forum) released Spectrum, the David Crowell Ensemble’s debut CD, where David fuses notated composition with jazz and ambient improvisation to create a focused, original sound. From a review by Bryon Hayes (Exclaim!): “David Crowell is an active neo-classical composer who infuses his work with jazz-like arrangements and improvised, ambient textures ... also inspired by minimalism and repetition, Spectrum demonstrates this unique take on modern composition. Crowell’s singular vision transcends genre; no amount of hyphens can pin him down ....” From Tom Chandler of jazzreview.com: “Crowell is really walking his own path in all the ways it counts. And when the polyrhythms really kick in, it makes one’s head spin.” A 2010 semi-finalist for the Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Jazz Album, Spectrum was also picked up for distribution by Naxos. David's latest music for the DCE embraces hypnotic rhythm cycles, counterpoint, polyrhythms and hard-hitting grooves to evoke visceral emotional reactions. Influences ranging from African pop music and minimalism to post-rock intersect, collide, and fuse. David’s music has received radio play on national and international stations, including New York City’s classical station WQXR and public radio station WNYC, with features on WNYC’s New Sounds with John Schaefer.

As a woodwinds performer, David tours internationally as a member of the Philip Glass Ensemble and has also performed with the N.Y. Philharmonic, the L.A. Philharmonic, Signal Ensemble, Asphalt Orchestra, Argento Ensemble, L’Arsenale, at the Bang on a Can Marathon and the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival. David has recorded with the Philip Glass Ensemble (Orange Mountain Music), Signal Ensemble (Orange Mountain Music), Shakira featuring Wyclef Jean (Epic), William Brittelle (Television Landscape, New Amsterdam Records), and Ken Thomson and Anti-Social Music. He is working on a collaborative CD with performance artist, Paul Amlehn, whose sound art exhibitions have shown at numerous museums in collaboration with musicians such as Robert Fripp and Joan Jeanrenaud.

As an educator, David has taught saxophones, flute and clarinet at New York City’s Grace Church School, Hudson School, Bronx House, Song of Songs, and 3rd St. Music Settlement. In 2009, he completed a commission for A4TY, a project at the Bloomingdale School of Music designed to foster learning and interaction between students and working composers, and will begin teaching saxophone and composition at Bloomingdale in the Fall of 2011. He will also be the commissioned composer for A4TY's 2012 program. A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, David has also studied composition with Michael Gordon, David Lang, Julia Wolfe, Paul Caputo and Jonathan Dawe; woodwinds with Andrew Sterman; and improvisation with Ralph Alessi, Don Byron, Peter Epstein, Steve Coleman and Ravi Coltrane through New York’s School for Improvisational Music.