David Gompper, Director
Ju Hye Kim, Res. Asst.
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The Director
of the Center
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David Gompper (b. 1954) has lived and worked professionally as a pianist, a conductor, and a composer in New York, San Diego, London, Nigeria, Michigan, and Texas. 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. Gompper is in the process of completing a number of works this summer for premieres in the fall: a song cycle on the poems of Emily Dickinson that will be heard in London; a prepared-piano work called Inside Cage for a German pianist written to complement Cage's Sonata and Interludes; Chorale & Prelude for organ based on a hymn written for Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims; and the third and final installment for violin and piano (along with Finnegan's Wake and Music in the Glen). Both the organ and violin/piano pieces will be premiered at the Moscow Autumn Concert Series in Moscow in November. He is completing his violin concerto, to be premiered in September in Iowa City, and performed and recorded by the Kiev Philharmonic next February.
In October 2004, Albany Records released a CD entitled Finnegan's Wake with performances of works for violin and piano by Gompper and Viennese violinist Wolfgang Dávid. They are planning to record a second album this September which will include works by Debussy, Messiaen, Hu, and Zahler, among others.
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