More about David
Building from his works Six Prayers and Baptismal Light, David plans to write a work for conducted nonet (accordion, clarinet, percussion, piano, string quartet and double bass). He hopes to create an expansive, intense, and yearning composition that maximally explores the potential of reiterating small, expressive melodies.
This new work will be the first in a series of Larner Walker Commissions. Gerald Larner and Lynne Walker were both supporters of Psappha and contemporary music throughout their lives. They worked in media as reviewers for the Guardian, Times and Independent and we are grateful for their bequest that supports, in part, this new work.
In 2020, David will travel to Japan to participate in the final of the 2020 Tōru Takemitsu Composition Competition. His shortlisted work, Six Prayers, will be performed by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and has been described by Thomas Adès as ‘excitingly direct […] with passages of intense expressive power’. Later in 2020, he will complete 2 new commissions for Siwan Rees and Huw Watkins, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales – both as part of the 2020 Vale of Glamorgan Festival. Following on from this, David plans to travel to America in order to undertake a Composer Fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Centre, working with musicians from the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
David won the 2017-18 Dyson / Orion Orchestra Composition Competition, resulting in a commission for the Orion Orchestra. The subsequent work, Acoustical Anatomy, was described as ‘bold, exciting, and beautiful’ by Sir James Dyson. David has also received numerous prizes at the International Antonín Dvořák Composition Competition; 3rd place in 2017, 2nd place and the Special Prize for Best Composition in 2018, and 1st place and the Special Prize for Best Orchestra Composition in 2019. His SATB setting of ‘O! Wisdom’ took 1st prize at the 2019 Guild of St. Teilo’s Composition Competition, resulting in his admittance to The Guild of St. Teilo’s as a Fellow. His solo harp piece We Are Key was shortlisted for the final of the Future Blend Project in 2018, and his solo piano composition Ten Acre Riots! – written as part of Psappha’s Composing For scheme – was shortlisted for ISCM World Music Days in 2018, also receiving an honourable mention as part of the 2017 An Art Artistry Contemporary Piano Composition Competition. David’s own recordings of his own works have been featured on BBC Introducing Wales (his Tremolo Study 4 being described by Adam Walton as a ‘beautiful tremolo, beautiful piece’). He recently worked as an editorial assistant on David Trippett’s Sardanapalo project. Upon its release, Sardanapalo was nominated for CD of the year with The Guardian and Presto Classical, and selected as Gramophone Editor’s Choice (February 2019). The Times stated that ‘the work’s emergence changes musical history’. David’s compositions have been broadcast, televised, written about, and performed internationally to millions of people. He is the recipient of over 30 academic and professional awards.
Photo copyright Juozapas