A distinguished classical composer and orchestral conductor based in Santa Monica (but originally from New York), David Avshalomov has also been an accomplished vocalist since his early years. His father Jacob is a nationally renowned composer-conductor (now retired), and his mother Doris a regionally recognized poet and teacher who studied operatic voice at Eastman. As a student, David sang in school choirs, studied piano, music theory and percussion, and learned the joys of madrigal singing at home. At Harvard college, where he earned a B.A., Magna cum Laude, in music, he was a professional chorister and a frequent oratorio and motet soloist and madrigalist. He served a tour of duty as a bass vocalist in the Singing Sergeants of the USAF Band (where he and Maestro Gaskill first became friends), also as occasional soloist and arranger. Since moving to Los Angeles, he has performed with such groups as Madrigalia, Cantori di Mezzogiorno, Soffio di Viento, and Santa Monica Chamber Orchestra (with Mary Rawcliffe and Robert Winter), he continues to sing professionally with a number of local choruses, and he gives solo vocal recitals featuring his own compositions.As a singer, he brings an artist’s sensibilities, interpretation, and expression to his performances of both his own and others’ music. He is noted for his powerful and highly nuanced baritone voice, wide range, and emotional renditions.
As a composer, he creates works in an accessible modern neo-tonal style that balances a lyric gift with a characteristic rhythmic vitality. The forms he crafts are conservative and developmental. His teachers include Charles Jones (Aspen), John Verrall, Robert Suderberg, and William Bergsma (UW), and his influences include the great 20th-century European and American tonal composers (plus his father and his paternal grandfather, Aaron Avshalomoff). In his words, “Melody is the thread of my daily life. I still find new paths through old musical forms, and fresh expression based in folk idioms and drawing on old melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic roots.” He has composed music for a wide variety of forces from solo instruments through chamber ensembles to full orchestra, band, and choir, in forms ranging in scale from songs and incidental pieces to full-length oratorio. Recently he has been writing predominantly vocal music, including songs (many for his own use) and choral settings, and receiving an increasing number of commissions. His compositions have been performed professionally across the U.S., in Europe, and in Russia, and have been recorded on the Albany and Marco Polo labels.
He earned a D.M.A. in conducting from the University of Washington (with Samuel Krachmalnick), with additional studies at Tanglewood (Bernstein, Ozawa, Schuller, N. Wyss), Seattle Opera (Henry Holt), the Blomstedt Institute, Aspen (W. Torkanowsky, Jean Morel), and Peabody (Leo Mueller). For over 20 years, he worked professionally as a conductor of orchestras, choruses, bands, and opera. In 1980 he founded the Santa Monica [Baroque] Chamber Orchestra, which he led for a decade. He has been music director of several other ensembles on both coasts, and has guest-conducted over 35 orchestras in the U.S. (and Japan). He has toured in the Far East and Europe, and recorded his own music and that of his grandfather in Russia. His conducting work has garnered listings in Who’s Who in Music and Who’s Who in the West.
He will be Musica Bella’s guest in October 2004, at which time we will: (1) perform two works of his on our October 24 orchestra concert, one its East Coast Premiere, the other, in its orchestral form, its World Premiere (and, in any form, its Public World Premiere); Mr. Avshalomov will be the vocal soloist in the latter work; on the same Oct. 24 concert, he will conduct Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony; and (2) sponsor a Mini-Festival of some of Mr. Avshalomov’s other compositions, including a choral concert on October 19 and a chamber music concert on October 22.