David Conte

David Conte (born 1955) is an American composer. Born in Denver Colorado of musical parents, Conte studied piano and choral singing in the Lakewood (OH) public schools with B. Neil Davis before attending Bowling Green State University (OH), majoring in composition. After graduation from Bowling Green (Bachelor of Music, 1978), where he studied with Wallace DePue, he attended Cornell University (MFA; 1981, DMA; 1983), where he studied with Karel Husa and Steven Stucky. Conte worked with Aaron Copland in 1982 preparing a thesis on his manuscript sketches.

Career

Conte has been honored as a Fulbright Scholar in Paris (where he studied with Nadia Boulanger), a Ralph Vaughan Williams Fellow and an Aspen Music Festival Conducting Fellow. He has served on the faculties of Cornell University, Colgate University, and the Interlochen Center for the Arts. While at Cornell, he served as both the assistant director and acting director of the Cornell University Glee Club, for whom he composed numerous works. Since 1985 has been Professor of Composition and Conservatory Chorus conductor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Composer-in-Residence with the theater company Thick Description since 1990. In 2010 he joined the composition faculty of the European American Musical Alliance in Paris.

Conte has received commissions from Chanticleer, the Golden Gate Men's Chorus, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Oakland-East Bay Symphony, and the Stockton Symphony. He was honored with the National American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) Brock Commission in 2007, and has composed songs for Barbara Bonney, Thomas Hampson, and Phyllis Bryn-Julson. Conte's music is published exclusively by E. C. Schirmer and his music is represented on numerous commercial CD recordings.

Some of his more well known works include operas The Gift of the Magi, and The Dreamers (Philip Littell, librettist), which led to a commission for The Journey (a cantata, 2001). Film scores include Orozco: Man of Fire for the PBS American Master's Series (2006), and Ballets Russes shown at the Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals (2005). Other prominent works include “Fantasy for Orchestra”, and “A Copland Portrait” (orchestra), and Soliloquy, and Pastorale and Toccata (organ). Many of his choral works have received wide acceptance, including Cantate Domino, Invocation and Dance, Ave Maria, Charm me asleep, An Exhortation and The Nine Muses.

Choral Works

• Cantate Domino (SATB 1975)
• Canticle (From Three Sacred Pieces - TTBB 1982; SATB 1984)
• The Waking (SATB 1985)
• Invocation and Dance (TTBB 1986; SATB 1989)
• Ave Maria (SATB 1991)
• In Praise of Music (SSA 1991; SATB 1994)
• Charm me asleep (SATB 1993)
• Elegy for Matthew (TTBB 1999: SATB 2000)
• A Hope Carol (SSAA 2006)
• The Nine Muses (ACDA Brock commission; SATB 2007)
• An Exhortation (Premiered at the Presidential Inauguration of President Barack Obama; TTBB, SSAA, SATB 2009)
• Omittamus Studia
• Valediction
• Hosanna
• Songs of Love and War (TTBB 2011)

Operas

• Gift of the Magi
• The Dreamers
• Firebird Motel
• America Tropical

Sources

• An Analysis of Selected Choral Works of David Conte Utilizing Ensemble Accompaniment by Dr. Marlen Dee Wilkins (Doctoral Dissertation, University of Northern Colorado, 2011)
• A Study of David Conte's Secular SATB Choral Works with Non-Orchestral Score Complement by Dr. Michael Artemus Conran (Doctoral Dissertation, University of Arizona, 2003)
• Collegiate Faculty profile San Francisco Conservatory of Music
• David Conte - Composer Biography on Famous The Opera website
• Wilkins, Marlen Dee. ""Conte, David"", Grove Music Online, ed. C. Garrett, grovemusic.com (subscription access).

External links

• Official web site