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David Felder (b. 1953) is an American composer of chamber, choral, orchestral, and electronic music, and currently a SUNY Distinguished Professor at the University at Buffalo, as well as the director of both the June in Buffalo Festival and the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music. Felder was the Composer-in-Residence of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra from 1993-1997, and has received numerous grants and commissions throughout his career as a composer, including many awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, two New York State Council commissions, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, two Koussevitzky commissions, two Fromm Foundation Fellowships, two awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, two commissions from the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, and many more. In 2010, the American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded Felder the Music Award in recognition of his career accomplishments. Felder has taught music composition at the University at Buffalo since 1985, and received the SUNY Distinguished Professor title in 2008.

Early Career
David Felder was born in Cleveland, Ohio on November 27, 1953, and as a youth joined the Cleveland Symphony Choir where he sang as a tenor under Music Director Pierre Boulez. He later received a Bachelors of Music in 1975 and a Masters of Music in 1977, both from Miami University, before completing his Ph.D. in Music Composition in 1983 at the University of California, San Diego where he studied with Roger Reynolds, Bernard Rands, Robert Erickson, and Joji Yuasa.

Music and Style
David Felder's music has often been noted for its virtuosic instrumental writing, integration and juxtaposition of contrasting stylistic influences, unpredictable and often explosive energy, and remarkable directness. In Neue Musikzeitung's review of the 1995 Bridge Records release, "The Music of David Felder", they offer an overview of the contrasts and stylistic forces at play in Felder's musical works, "It would be possible to extract a philosophy from the unbroken thread appearing through the chamber music-like five pieces represented as an example: the dazzling antagonism between dangerous and graceful activity, and static, distanced tranquility; the complexity and virtuosity in the handling of the ensemble and instrument; finally, the varied harmonic 'colorfulness'. Immediate access to this music that does not compromise or subordinate to a 'saleable' idiom is undeniable; as well, its unique strength/power and vitality creates a sound-aesthetic full of sensual eruptions. This is especially true for the two pieces for chamber orchestra Three Lines from 'Twenty Poems' (1987) and Journal (1990). In these pieces, David Felder proves himself not only as a composer that knows how to concentrate and use the subtle nuances of the instruments, but also as a composer that can use at the same time an extreme sense for the right balance between different tension-fields. November Sky (1992), for flute, incorporates the addition of a NeXT Computer to bring to reality a multi-layered, enhanced, sound-variability; (it is) an 'in and out swelling' Lied of more than 16 minutes of duration in contrast exchange of joyfulness and melancholy. The movement for string quartet, Third Face (1988-98), startles through its unpretentious aggressiveness and drama, in which the few quiet passages contribute to the intensification of the climax rather than the relaxation. With Canzone XXXI (1993), Felder devotes himself to the refreshingly direct manner of the Brass Music of the 16th century Venetian tradition. These few examples show a directness free from any coercion, individualistic, and dictated exclusively by the suggestive power of the music."

In the liner notes of Felder's 2013 CD release, "Tweener", Paul Griffiths describes Felder's style as a whole, "Different currents, and strong ones, are driving beneath the turbulent surfaces of David Felder’s music, where a still-robust modernism, with inheritances in particular from Stravinsky and Varèse, sports with aspects of popular music from big-band to electronica. At the same time, though, we are being taken back to the most basic elements of music: a single note (the start of Requiescat), a single interval (the start of Incendio), pulse (everywhere). Across the range of more than a quarter-century, from Rocket Summer (1983) to Requiescat (2010), Felder’s imperatives have remained remarkably stable, and yet the variety of his means and aims makes it useful to have, almost like a museum guide taking us through the collection..."

Nils Vigeland describes a similar play of contrasts in Felder's music in his liner notes to "The Music of David Felder", "The main characteristics of Felder's music are, I think, two in number. The first is a fierce opposition of states of activity -- muscular, often violent fast music with static remote music of repose. This opposition is often made even more palpable by the parallel association of dynamics (loud versus soft) and interval content (dissonant versus consonant)... The second major characteristic of Felder's music is its insistent virtuosity of instrumental projection. In a Felder score, the performers are not only required to execute music of great difficulty, but must respond to both notational complexity and ensemble virtuosity. Although Felder... is very much concerned with the realities of performance, he has not wavered in his demand for the solution of difficult performance problems.'"

June in Buffalo Festival
The June in Buffalo Festival was founded at the University at Buffalo in 1975 by composer and UB Professor Morton Feldman, with sponsorship by the Rockefeller Foundation, New York State Council for the Arts, and the University at Buffalo. The festival was originally dedicated to emerging composers and to presenting and exposing new music to the world. The festival ran until 1980 and took a brief a hiatus until 1985 when David Felder revived the festival. Since 1985, Felder has been the Director of June in Buffalo, and expanded the program to include student composers, as well as, recently, student ensembles. June in Buffalo runs every June, and offers a week-long intensive schedule of seminars, lectures, workshops, professional presentations, participant forums and open rehearsals as well as afternoon and evening concerts open to the general public and critics. Each of the invited composers has one of their pieces performed during the festival. Evening performances feature faculty composers, resident ensembles and soloists renowned internationally as interpreters of contemporary music.

June in Buffalo boasts a resident ensemble that performs regularly at the festival, the Slee Sinfonietta, which Felder founded and began as Artistic Director in 1996. The Slee Sinfonietta is the professional chamber orchestra in residence at the University at Buffalo and presents a series of concerts each year that feature performances of challenging new works by contemporary composers and lesser-known works from the chamber orchestra repertoire. The Slee Sinfonietta is comprised of a core group including UB faculty performance artists, visiting artists, national and regional professionals and advanced performance students, and conducted by leading conductors and composers.

The June in Buffalo Festival enjoys sponsorship from the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music, which Felder founded in 2006, and has acted as Artistic Director since. In The Center for 21st Century Music's mission statement they commit that they are, "dedicated to the creation and production of new work upholding the highest artistic standards of excellence while simultaneously fostering a complementary atmosphere of creative research."

Published Works
All works are published by Theodore Presser, Inc., One Presser Place, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010.

Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra


 * Tweener for small chamber orch., solo percussionist, 8 channel electronics, 2010


 * Gone grey for chamber string orchestra, 2003


 * In Between for solo percussion and chamber orchestra, 2000


 * a pressure triggering dreams for orchestra, 1997, revised 1998


 * Three Pieces for Orchestra 1996, score revised 2008


 * Linebacker Music for orchestra, 1994


 * Six Poems from Neruda's Alturas...  for orchestra, 1990-92, revised 1998


 * Journal for chamber orchestra, 1990


 * Between for solo percussion and large orchestra, 1990


 * La Dura Fria Hora for chamber chorus and orchestra, 1986


 * Three Lines from Twenty Poems for chamber orchestra, 1987


 * Coleccion Nocturna, for clarinet (=bcl), piano, orchestra, optional tape, 1984

Choral


 * Nomina Sunt Consequentia Rerum for choir, 2012


 * Memento mori for 16 voice mixed chorus, 2004


 * La Dura Fria Hora for voices, a cappella, 1986

Large Ensemble


 * Requiescat for bass flute, contrabass clarinet, perc., guitar, piano/celeste, 2 vlns., vla., vc.. bass, 8 channels of electronics, 2010


 * Dionysiacs for flute ensemble (6 players), and ‘gli altri’ (minimum 14), 2005


 * Partial [Dist]res[s]toration for ensemble, 2002


 * Inner Sky for flute (doubling piccolo, alto, bass), two percussion, piano, strings, computer, 1994, revised 1998


 * Passageways IIa for ensemble, 1991


 * Passageways II for ensemble, 1980

Brass


 * shredder for brass ensemble (13 players), timpani, electric bass, 2001


 * Incendio for brass dectet (arranged with Jon Nelson), 2000


 * Canzone XXXI for two trumpets, horn, trombone, bass trombone, 1993

String Quartet


 * Stuck-stücke for string quartet, 2007, revised 2009


 * Third Face for string quartet, 1988

Electronics


 * Green Flash for 6 channels of electronic sound, 2012


 * So Quiet Here for four channels of electronic sound, 2006


 * RRRings t{h}RRR(o)u[gh]e for 8 channels of electronic sound, 2004

Solo and Small Ensemble


 * A Garland (for Bruce) for solo cello, 4, 6, or 8 channels of electronic sound, 2012


 * Rare Air for solo bass clarinet, piano and electronics, 2008


 * Insomnia for solo bass voice and percussion, 2008


 * Black Fire/White Fire (part 3 of Shamayim) for solo bass voice, video, 8 channels electronics, 2008


 * Sa’arah (part 2 of Shamayim) for solo bass voice, 8 channel electronics, video, 2007


 * Chashmal (part 1 of Shamayim) for solo bass voice, 8 channels of electronics, optional video, 2006


 * TweeenerB for solo percussion (including KAT mallet controller), and electronics, 1995, revised 2013


 * November Sky for flute doubling piccolo, alto, bass flutes, can be presented as media work with video walls (16 monitors each) and video playback, 1992


 * Crossfire for trombone, violin, flute, percussion; consists of four individual works: Boxman, Another Face, November Sky, and In Between; each work may be presented with or without video, 1986-92


 * Boxman for amplified solo trombone with MaxMSP processing, can also be presented as media work with two Delcom video walls (16 monitors each) and video playback, 1986-88, revised 1999


 * Another Face for solo violin, can be presented as media work with two Delcom video walls (16 monitors each) and video playback, 1987


 * Coleccion Nocturna for clarinet (=bcl), piano, tape, 1983


 * Rocket Summer for solo piano, 1979, revised 1983


 * Rondage/Cycle for trumpet (trombone) with amplification/delay, piano, percussion, digital synthesizer, tape, 1977, revised with choreography and synclavier II digital synthesizer, 1983


 * Nexus for solo bass trombone, 1975

Discography
David Felder's music is featured on two solo discs, a joint release with Morton Feldman, and included on albums released by individual artists and new music groups. His works have been released on a variety of labels including Bridge Records, Mode Records, Albany Records, and others.


 * The Music of David Felder, Bridge CD 0049, 1995. Three Lines from "Twenty Poems", Journal (June in Buffalo Chamber Orchestra), Third Face (Arditti String Quartet), Canzone XXXI (American Brass Quintet), November Sky (Rachel Rudich, flutist, with 4-channel computer). Critic’s Choice CD of the Year, 1997, American Record Guide and Buffalo News.


 * a pressure triggering dreams, Mode CD 89, 2000. Six Poems from Neruda’s Alturas ..., a pressure triggering dreams, and Coleccion Nocturna.


 * Felder-Feldman, EMF CD 033, 2001. Coleccion Nocturna (orchestral version), and In Between. Also contains premier recordings of Morton Feldman’s Viola in My Life IV, and Instruments II, produced by Felder.


 * Boxman, Albany SACD 5.1 Troy 1153, 2009. BoxMan, partial [dist]res[s]toration, Memento Mori, and stuck-stücke.


 * Shamayim, Albany DVD 5.1 Troy 1137, 2009. Nicholas Isherwood, bass voice, image by Elliot Caplan.


 * Blooming Sounds, Albany Records CD Troy 210, 2006. Includes Another Face.


 * Metallafonic, Blue Bison Records CD002, 2006. Includes Shredde and Incendio.


 * The Age of Wire of String, edition NEO, 2011. Released by the Norbotten NEO Ensemble, features Partial [dist]res[s]toration.


 * Extreme Measures, Albany Records CD Troy 1217-18, 2010. Includes rare air performed by Jean Kopperud, clarinet, Stephen Gosling, piano.