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Biography David Gompper has lived and worked professionally as a pianist, a conductor, and a composer in New York, San Diego, London, Nigeria, Michigan, Texas and Iowa. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London with Jeremy Dale Roberts, Humphrey Searle and Phyllis Sellick. After teaching in Nigeria, he received his doctorate at the University of Michigan, taught at the University of Texas, Arlington, and since 1991 has been Professor of Composition and Director of the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa. In 2002 - 2003 Gompper was in Russia as a Fulbright Scholar, teaching, performing and conducting at the Moscow Conservatory. Gompper's compositions are heard throughout the United States and Europe. In 1999 his Transitus (for wind ensemble) premiered at Carnegie Hall, and a number of his works have premiered in London's Wigmore Hall, including: Hommage a W. A. (William Albright) for piano; and Shades of Love, a song cycle on the poetry of Constantin Cavafy. Subsequent returns to Moscow have included premieres and performances of Crossed, Music in the Glen, Six Love Poems, Star of the County Down, Butterfly Dance and Spirals. His Outside Cage for piano and electronics was premiered at the Institute of Music and Acoustics (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany last June. His latest work for violin and piano, Echoes - serving as the prototype for his Violin Concerto - was taken on a 12-concert tour throughout the US, Canada and Europe this past fall with Wolfgang David, a violinist from Vienna with whom Gompper actively collaborates as a pianist and composer. They have recorded two CDs on the Albany label, with a third disc forthcoming. Gompper's An Elm We Lost and Kuta Muela appear on the CD Monsterology (Albany Records TROY900), as well as Musica segreta (Albany Records, TROY956). His Spirals for two violins and string orchestra was premiered in Albania in April 2008; the orchestral version was recorded in Bratislava and the trio version in Moscow last May 2008. Both versions will be released on two separate Albany discs this spring. He recently completed several new compositions: a new violin and piano work called Ikon for Wolfgang David (fall 2008); a work for the Manhattan Sinfonietta (February 17 & 20, 2009) entitled L'Icone St. Nicolas; and Ikon II for the the Coe College Symphony (European tour, 2009). His Violin Concerto and other orchestral works will be recorded by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (London) in the fall of 2009 for a release on Naxos in early 2011.
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Program Notes Finnegan’s Wake premiered in Thessaloniki, Greece in May 1997, where it was performed by Eva Delfinopoyloy (violin), and the composer (piano). Gompper informs us that “the initial inspiration for the piece came from working with the violinist and fiddler Andrew Carlson, who was crucial in shaping the final version. The piece is dedicated to my friends, Erin Irish and Gene Szymkowiak.” On the origins of the composition, Gompper reveals “Finnegan’s Wake is based on an Irish fiddle reel, The Green Groves of Erin, made popular by the traditional Celtic group, the Bothy Band [Green Linnet GLCD 3016], and more recently, by the string trio of Edgar Meyer, Mark O’Connor and Yo-Yo Ma [Sony SK 68460].” In turn, the incipits that follow point to the alterations at the beginning of the first and the second sections of the reel, as the original tune itself is made over into the Bothy Band’s version of it, and laterally into Gompper’s Finnegan’s Wake.
“Finnegan’s Wake is a four-sectioned, one-movement form, and although it presents Irish-Appalachia-Texas fiddle traditions embedded within the context of art music, my intention was to effect a transformation of the foot-stomping dance tune by leading it through a labyrinth of rhythmic manipulations, and into a series of playful excursions for both instruments.” Finnegan’s Wake is particularly rich in its amalgamation of styles, transitions from the one to the next, and in the manner in which, at its end, a single voice remains, that of Gompper himself, for what had begun as emulation, is ultimately converted into appropriation: the source material serving the composer’s own musical purposes.
Program Notes (short) Finnegan's Wake is based on two Irish fiddle tunes, The Green Groves of Erin/The Flowers of Red Hill, and made popular by the Bothy Band, and more recently, the string trio of Edgar Meyer, Mark O'Connor and Yo-Yo Ma. While its four-sectioned, one movement form presents Irish-Appalachia-Texas fiddle music embedded within the context of art music, my intention was to transform the music as feet-stomping dance music through a labyrinth of rhythmic manipulations into a series of playful excursions for both instruments. This work, premiered in Thessaloniki, Greece in May 1997, was performed by Eva Delfinopoyloy, violin and the composer on piano. The initial inspiration for this piece came from working with the violinist and fiddler Andrew Carlson, who was crucial in shaping the final version. The piece is dedicated to my friends, Erin Irish and Gene Szymkowiak. Program Notes by Gregory Marion
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Contact David Gompper
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