David Garner

Composer David Garner’s body of work reflects his historical knowledge, theatrical flair and humor. Nominated for a 2013 Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Garner has been creating uniquely beautiful works for over 30 years. With the fall, 2012 online release of Spoon River Songs, sung by mezzo-soprano Catherine Cook, and the projected 2013 premiere and CD release of the Yiddish-language vocal chamber work "Vilna Poems," interest in his music continues to build. Ongoing projects include a full-length opera in collaboration with Ensemble Parallele, 4 German-language song-cycles for the Jewish Music and Poetry Project, an anthology and recording of piano/vocal arrangements for the Persian Melody Project, a symphony, a second string quartet, and a multimedia metal-fusion show in collaboration with singer/dancer Crystal Philippi. Recent career highlights include the October, 2012 international premiere of Chanson für Morgen, at the Lichtburgforum in Berlin, the October, 2010 premiere of Spoon River Songs and Daughter of Night in San Francisco, the May, 2010 performance of Phenomenal Woman, for Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Picasso Quartet’s 2008 premiere of his first String Quartet, and the 2008 premiere of his arrangements of six traditional Persian songs with the Oakland East Bay Symphony, in collaboration with Iranian-American mezzo-soprano Raeeka Shehabi-Yaghmai—a work described as “alluring” and as “a heady and touching revelation,” by the San Francisco Chronicle. Prof. Garner has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1979. He held the Chair of the Department of Musicianship and Music Theory from 1984 until 1999, and is the recipient of the 1997 George Sarlo Family Foundation Outstanding Professor Award. Garner studied piano with Virginia Danforth, Beatrice Beauregard, and Nathan Schwartz, and cello with Priscilla Parsons and Roman Dukson. Garner is a member of Broadcast Music, Inc.