David Mahler (Seattle)
PERFORMANCE, Saturday, July 22, 1999, 7pm, Tacoma
Art Museum.
David Mahler (b. 1944) is a composer,
performer, and writer. His special musical interests include turn
of the century popular music, twentieth century American concert
music from the exploratory tradition, vernacular vocal music,
tape music, and the general subject of how music relates to its
societal context. As a composer, Mahler has received numerous commissions,
ranging from a 1974 setting of the Mass Texts for chorus, piano,
organ, and percussion, commissioned by Trinity Episcopal Church,
Portland, to One Banned Man, for solo flute, commissioned by Paul
Taub in 1999. Recent compositions includeAfter Richard Hugo, a
1998 piece for string quartet, commissioned by Richard Hugo House;
Cornet Bouquet, a 1997 work for solo cornet, commissioned by Seattle
Symphony trumpeter Richard Pressley; Three Pieces After Charles
Ives, composed for the Olympia Chamber Orchestra, and also performed
by the Seattle Creative Orchestra; Handy, for percussion, piano,
and voice, commissioned
by Music in Motion and Zeitgeist; Scenes of SacredPeace and Pleasure,
a chamber work written for Relache; Day Creek PianoWorks and The
Teams Are Waiting in the Fields, for piano solo with voice, commissioned
by Steven Mitchell; and numerous solo and small ensembleworks,
as well as music for electronic and tape media. Mahler has also
written several site specific compositions, including Powerhouse
for the Georgetown Steamplant. David Mahler's permanent public
art installation, The Washington State Centennial Bell Garden,
(1989) at the Washington State Convention and Trade Center in
downtown Seattle, was the first public work using sound to be
commissioned by the Art in Public Places Committee of the Washington
State Arts Commission. Mahler was co-founder and pianist for New
Songs, (1988-1993) a project for the commissioning and presentation
of new pieces or voice and piano. He was founder and music director
of the Volunteer Park Conservatory Orchestra (1990 - 1997), an
ensemble dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of popular
orchestral music from the first three decades of this century.David
Mahler has served composer residencies at Mills College, Oakland,
CA, and California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA. He has also
served as listener-in-residence at the University of California
at Santa Barbara, and at the La Mott Community Center, La Mott,
PA. Mahler's extensive teaching activities include singing classes
for small children and their parents,heldin private homes. He
has also taught high school students music composition through
the Experiences in Creativity Program of Centrum, Port Townsend,
Washington. Combining his interest in writing with his work as
a composer, Mahlerhas taught a class titled "Words About
Sound and Music" in the Inquiry Through Writing series at
Richard Hugo House, a Seattle literary arts center. Mahler's scores,
recordings, and writings are published and distributed by Frog
Peak Music, Lebanon, NH. His compositions are licensed through
BMI. David holds a BA from Concordia College (1967) and a MFA
from the California Institue of the Arts (1972).