2009 ClefWorks Composition Competition
New York City-based composer and instrumentalist David Crowell’s “The Open Road” was this year’s winning composition selected by the JACK Quartet from more than 150 entries representing 14 countries, 32 states and the District of Columbia. He will join JACK in Montgomery for the January 30 world premiere of his original score.
David is active in diverse genres of composed and improvised music. As a woodwinds player with the Philip Glass Ensemble since 2007, he has performed such classic works as “Music in 12 Parts” and the concert version of “Einstein on the Beach”. Other performances with the Ensemble have included the world premiere of “Los Paisjes Del Rio” at the grand finale of the 2008 World Expo in Zaragoza. His chamber works have been performed in a variety of venues in the United States and Mexico, including MASS MoCA, University of North Texas, University of Kentucky and Brooklyn College. He was a featured composter at the 2009 MATA Festival, a New York City forum for presenting the new music of emerging young composers from around the world, and was named the 2009 1st prize Brian M. Israel Award recepient by the Society for New Music for his percussion piece titled “The Day After.” He was also a finalist for the 2008 and 2009 ASCAP Young Composer Awards in Concert Music.
In 2009 David completed a commission for A4TY, a project at the Bloomingdale School of Music designed to foster learning and interaction between students (1st – 12th grade) and working composers. Past recepients of the commission have included Frederic Rzewski and Elliot Sharp.
David has studied composition with Julia Wolfe, Michael Gordon, Jonathan Dawe (Julliard) and Pulitzer Prize-winner David Lang. His winning ClefWorks entry, “The Open Road” is his personal tribute to the spiritual and humanitarian accomplishments of the Dalai Lama. While not an intentionally religious piece, the work expresses both melancholic reflection and unbridled optimism in recognition of the suffering of humanity and its equally powerful potential for transcendent understanding. “The Open Road,” will be performed by JACK on January 30, 2010 in Montgomery during ClefWorks’ five-day festival, Do you know JACK?, where Crowell will join the quartet to discuss the score’s nuances and introduce the composition to the audience.
Other Competition finalists are Patricia Alessandrini (New York), Matthew Barnson (New York), Trevor Christian Bjorkland (New York), Richard Carrick (New York), Nicholas Deyoe (California), Ulrich Kreppein (Germany), Daniel Pesca (Illinois), Valery Voronov (Germany) and Charlie Wilmoth (California).