| Short Bio | David Liptak was born in 1949 in Pittsburgh. His music has been described as “luminous and arresting,” “richly atmospheric,” and having “transparent textures, incisive rhythms, shimmering lightness.” His compositions have been performed throughout the United States and abroad by the San Francisco Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Group for Contemporary Music, EARPLAY, the Ying, Cassatt, and JACK String Quartets, the Dinosaur Annex Ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, the 20th-Century Consort, baritone William Sharp, soprano Tony Arnold, and by many other soloists and ensembles. In 1995 David Liptak was awarded the Elise L. Stoeger Prize, given by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in recognition of distinguished achievement in the field of chamber music composition. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, both in 2002; he has also received the 2006 Lillian Fairchild Award; and commissions for new music have included those supported by the Fromm Foundation, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Meet the Composer, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the California Music Center, and the Hanson Institute for American Music. Recordings of David Liptak’s music can be found on Bridge, Innova, Albany, Centaur, and other recording labels. He is President of the American Composers Alliance, and his music is published by several publishers, including Keiser Classical, Alfred Music - Donald Hunsberger Wind Ensemble Library, and the American Composers Edition. Much of his music written very recently has explored the poetry and magical quality of stars and starlight, imagined and real. A dedicated teacher of composition students for the past three decades, David Liptak is Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music, where he has taught since 1986. |
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| Long Bio | David Liptak – professional biography
David Liptak was born in 1949 in Pittsburgh. His music has been described as “luminous and
arresting,” “richly atmospheric,” and having “transparent textures, incisive rhythms, shimmering
lightness.” His compositions have been performed by the San Francisco Symphony, the Montreal
Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Youngstown Symphony, the Sinfonia da Camera of Illinois, the
New England Philharmonic, the National Orchestral Association, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, the
Group for Contemporary Music, EARPLAY, the Ying and Cassatt String Quartets, the Dinosaur
Annex Ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, the 20th-Century Consort, and by many
other soloists and ensembles.
Among his music found on recordings is Rhapsodies, commissioned for the Syracuse Society for
New Music by the Meet the Composer/Readers Digest Consortium Commissioning Program, on
the Innova CD American Masters of the 21st Century. Other recordings include two from Albany
Records featuring music written for violinist Catherine Tait, and, with musicians from the Eastman
School of Music in collaboration with those from the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg,
his chamber piece
Giovine vagha, i' non sent
i. His music is also found recorded on Bridge
Records, including a recording of his
Forlane
by guitarist David Starobin. A second Bridge
recording from 2005 is entirely Liptak's music, and includes recordings of his
Ancient Songs
, with
baritone William Sharp and the Dinosaur Annex Ensemble,
Serenade
, with saxophone soloist
Chen-Kwan Lin and a string ensemble conducted by Brad Lubman, and
Broken Cries
, with the
Tarab Cello Ensemble.
Ice Flowers
, for violin and koto, appears on a Centaur recording featuring
the duo “vio-LINK-oto.” In 1994, he received a commission from the Fromm Music Foundation for
a trumpet concerto for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, which was premiered in 1996 with
soloist Paul Merkelo. His works include
Concerto for Viola and Percussion
for violist John Graham;
Quintet for Piano and String Quartet
, which was premiered by the Finger Lakes Chamber Ensemble
in Ithaca in 2006;
Cold Litanies
, a trio for flute, cello, and piano that was written for and premiered
by Trio Xia;
Sonata for Cello and Piano
, written for cellist Steven Doane; and his
String Quartet No.
2
, written for the Cassatt Quartet and premiered by the ensemble in Philadelphia in 2003. His
Folgore's Months
, a setting of 14th-century sonnets by the Italian poet Folgore da San Gimignano
for soprano and wind ensemble, was premiered in 2009 by Mark Scatterday and the Eastman
Wind Ensemble with soprano Tony Arnold. Among is latest works are
Dove Songs
, premiered by
Tony Arnold and pianist Alison d’Amato in the fall of 2014, and his
String Quartet No. 3,
premiered by the JACK Quartet in January, 2015.
In 1995 David Liptak was awarded the Elise L. Stoeger Prize, given by the Chamber Music Society
of Lincoln Center in recognition of distinguished achievement in the field of chamber music
composition. His composition prizes include the 1986 Georges Enesco International Composition
Competition and the 1978 Minnesota Orchestra 75th Anniversary Composers Competition; and he
was a finalist in the 1982 St. Paul Chamber Orchestra Composition Competition, the 1989 Sudler
International Competition for Wind Ensemble Composition, and the 2008 Sackler Composition
Competition. Other distinctions include awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
and the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, both in 2002; he has also received the 2006
Lillian Fairchild Award. His music is published by Keiser Classical, Alfred Music - Donald
Hunsberger Wind Ensemble Library, the American Composers Alliance, and others.
A dedicated teacher of composition students for the past three decades, David Liptak is Professor
of Composition at the Eastman School of Music, where he has taught since 1986. Much of his |
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