David Schiff
(January DNM & MainStage Composer)
Composer and author David Schiff was born in New York City on August 30, 1945. He began to play the piano when he was four and, inspired by hearing a recording of Aaron Copland’s Billy the Kid, composed his first composition when he was nine. He also played tuba and string bass in school band and orchestra, played piano and bass in a jazz quintet, sang in choirs and helped accompany school performances of Broadway shows. As an undergraduate at Columbia he was an English major but was actively involved in the new music scene, a combination of roles he would continue when he studied for two years at Cambridge University as a Kellett Fellow. After Cambridge Schiff entered the doctoral program in English Literature at Columbia, concentrating on 19th century novels, but left the program before beginning a dissertation in order to study composition.
He first worked with John Corigliano and Ursula Mamlok at the Manhattan School of Music, and then studied with Elliott Carter at the Juilliard School where he received his D.M.A. From 1980 to 2019 he taught music composition and theory at Reed College, where he was R.P. Wollenberg Professor of Music.
Schiff’s compositions have been performed by major orchestras all over the USA and at music festivals in the USA, UK, China and France. Major works include the opera Gimpel the Fool, with libretto by I. B. Singer, the Sacred Service, written for the 125th anniversary of Congregation Beth Israel of Portland, Slow Dance, commissioned by the Oregon Symphony, Stomp, commissioned by Marin Alsop for Concordia, and recorded by the Baltimore Symphony conducted by David Zinman, Solus Rex, for bass trombone and chamber ensemble commissioned by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and premiered by David Taylor, Speaking in Drums, a concerto for timpani and string orchestra commissioned by the Minnesota Orchestra for its timpanist, Peter Kogan, Vashti, a retelling of the Book of Esther for mezzo-soprano, clarinet and piano, commissioned by the Gold Coast Chamber Music Festival, 4 Sisters, a concerto for jazz violin and orchestra, which premiered in Cambridge, England in 1997 and received its American premiere with Regina Carter and the Detroit Symphony in January 2004, New York Nocturnes, a piano trio written for Chamber Music Northwest, Pepper Pieces, arrangements of songs by Jim Pepper for jazz violinist Hollis Taylor and strings, Canti di Davide, a concerto for clarinet and orchestra premiered by David Shifrin and the Virginia Symphony in October 2001, Singing in the Dark, for Alto Saxophone and String Quartet, premiered at Chamber Music Northwest in July 2002 by Marty Ehrlich and the Miami String Quartet, All About Love, a song cycle for mezzo-soprano, tenor and chamber ensemble which premiered at Chamber Music Northwest in July 2004, and Canzona for brass, percussion and strings commissioned by the Seattle Symphony and premiered by them in January 2005 conducted by Gerard Schwarz.
More recent Schiff premieres include Infernal and Canzonetta, both commissioned by the Seattle Symphony, Nonet no. 1 for String Quartet, Bass and Clarinet Quartet, Borscht Belt Follies for klezmer clarinet, bass trombone, violin, cello, piano, percussion and stand-up comedian, and Nonet no. 2 for String Quartet and Reed Quintet, all commissioned by Chamber Music Northwest, and Road Maps for improvising soloists and chamber ensemble, premiered by Third Angle with soloists Myra Melford, Brian McWhorter and Marty Ehrlich. The Eugene Symphony gave the premiere of Prefontaine: a symphonic tribute in 2022, and recorded it in the following year. Chamber Music Northwest gave the premiere of Vineyard Rhythms: Chamber Concerto no. 2 for Violin and string nonet in 2022.
Schiff’s compositions appear on CDs issued by Delos, Naxos, New World Records and Chamber Music Northwest. Three of his compositions, Divertimento from Gimpel the Fool, Suite from the Sacred Service, and Scenes from Adolescence, may be heard on Delos CD #3058 performed by artists of Chamber Music Northwest and the composer's wife Cantor Judith Schiff. Shtik, written for David Taylor, appears on the album "Past Tells" on the New World label. His writings include The Music of Elliott Carter (Cornell University Press), George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (Cambridge University Press), The Ellington Century (University of California Press) and Carter (Oxford University Press) as well as many articles on music for the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, Opera News, The Nation, the Times Literary Supplement, The Musical Quarterly and Tempo.
Learn more on David’s website here