David Loeb (born May 11, 1939) is an American composer of

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

. Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, he has written extensively for

early music Early music generally comprises Medieval music (500–1400) and Renaissance music (1400–1600), but can also include Baroque music (1600–1750). Originating in Europe, early music is a broad musical era for the beginning of Western classical m ...

instruments such as the

viol The viol (), viola da gamba (), or informally gamba, is any one of a family of bowed, fretted, and stringed instruments with hollow wooden bodies and pegboxes where the tension on the strings can be increased or decreased to adjust the pitc ...

, as well as instruments from

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. He teaches at the

Mannes College The New School for Music Mannes School of Music is a music conservatory in The New School, a private research university in New York City. In the fall of 2015, Mannes moved from its previous location on Manhattan's Upper West Side to join the rest of the New School cam ...

, and has additionally served as a member of the composition faculty at the

Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on full scholarship. Hi ...

.Koznin, Allan. "Music Review - Consort of Viols Plays Jewish Works at Bargemusic." ''The New York Times.'' 20 September 2010. . His notable students include

Jennifer Higdon Jennifer Elaine Higdon (born December 31, 1962) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. She has received many awards, including the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her Violin Concerto and three Grammy Award for Best Contempora ...

Jeremy Beck Jeremy Beck (born 1960) is an American composer who "knows the importance of embracing the past while also going his own way." The critic Mark Sebastian Jordan has said that "Beck was committed to tonality and a recognizable musical vernacular l ...

, and

Craig Walsh Craig Thomas Walsh (born April 11, 1971, in Somerville, New Jersey) is an American composer of acoustic and electronic music. Dr. Walsh studied at the Mannes School of Music (B.Mus.) and Brandeis University (M.F.A./ Ph.D.). Walsh's awards f ...

Works

* ''Ancient Legends'' * ''Andorran Fantasy'' * ''Balinese Fantasies'' (Published by ALRY Publications) * ''Between Sea and Sky'' * ''Cantata for Oboe and String Orchestra'' * ''Caprices for Solo Mandolin Vol. 1-2'' * ''Chanson Malagache'' * ''A Distant Land Unfurled'' * ''Fantasia on a Theme of Yuize'' * ''Fantasia on Pyong-si-jo No. 1-2'' * ''Fantasia sobre "Una Hiji Tiene del Rey"'' * ''Fantasias for the Japanese Consort'' * ''Ganya'' * ''Imagined Landscapes'' * ''Keisho for Theorbo Solo'' * ''The Meeting of Sea and Clouds'' * ''Nocturne for Mandolin and Guitar'' * ''Prelude for Two Consorts'' * ''Quartet for flute, guitar, violin, and cello'' * ''Riddles'' * ''Rivermist in Summer'' * ''Sonata No. 1-6 for Cello Solo'' * ''Sonata for Trombone and Piano No. 1'' (1998) * ''Sonata for Trombone and Piano No. 2'' (2000) * ''Sonata for Trombone and Piano No. 3'' (2003) * ''Sonata for Trombone and Piano No. 4'' (2004) * ''Sonata for Trombone and Piano No. 5'' (2005) * ''Seiya'' * ''Symphony for Mandolin orchestra'' * ''Three Fantasias on East Asian Modes'' * ''Tre Romanze'' * ''Trois Cansos'' * ''Two Views of the Silent Waterfall'' * ''Utagumi'' * ''Yoru Ga Mau''

Books

* Loeb, David. ''Chinese & Japanese Musical Instruments and Their Notation''. Harold Branch, 1972.

Sources

* Loeb, David: ''The life and times of a viola composer'', Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society of America. 22 (1985), p. 29-34. * Anderson, Ruth. ''Contemporary American composers. A biographical dictionary'', 1st edition, G. K. Hall, 1976. * Press, Jaques Cattell (Ed.). ''Who's who in American Music. Classical'', first edition. R. R. Bowker, 1983.

External links

David Loeb official site
Loeb, David (composer) Loeb, David (composer) Loeb, David (composer) Loeb, David (composer) Loeb, David (composer) Loeb, David (composer) Jewish American classical composers 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American Jews {{US-composer-20thC-stub