About the Artist
Composer David Smooke (b. 1969) currentlyresides in Baltimore, Maryland, where he teaches music theory, rock music history and music composition at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, and is the faculty advisor for Peabody's new music ensemble Now Hear This. The Washington Post claims that "Smooke has some of the most uninhibited brain cells around" and describes his music as "superb [...] a kaleidoscopic sonic universe where anything could happen"; the Bahimore Sun adds that it is a "fascinating experience in sound and content [...] exceedingly imaginative [and] complex," and the San Francisco Chronicle praises his music's abiliry to "cast an eerie, unsettling spell, with sounds that are as haunting and strange as they are beautiful." His honors include the 2016 Johns Hopkins Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award, and those from the Maryland State Arts Council, BMI, the MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation. He has composed commissions for groups and individuals including the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Cube, Vohi Choir, loadbang, Rhymes with Opera, the Peabody Wind Ensemble, the Great Noise Ensemble, Dark in the Song, the Adantic Guitar Quartet (funded by the Presser Foundation), bassist Jeffrey Weisner (of the National Symphony Orchestra), toy pianist Phyllis Chen (of ICE), and pianist AmyBriggs, and has worked with ensembles and performers including the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Pacifica Sning Quanet, eighth blackbird, Ensemble Dal Niente, and the California EAR Unit.
Previously he was on the faculties of Ohio University, the Chicago College of PerformingArts of Roosevelt University, the Merit School of Music, the University of Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, the Birch Creek Music Performance Center, and the Sun Valley Summer Symphony Workshops. David performs improvisations and original works on various instruments including toy piano, supported by Schoenhut toy pianos. He has created free improvisations on toy piano alongside such luminaries as Michael Formaneh Susan Alcorn, Ken Ueno, Tim Feene, Courtney Orlando, Dave Ballou, and Bonnie Lander. He has collaborated with visual artists including the puppet-maker Valeska Populoh, filmmaker MegRorison, and interdisciplinary artists Mayumi Ishino and Katherine Kavanaugh. Previously, David has served as co-composer/cruator for the Lunar Ensemble (with Emity Koh) and League of the Unsound Sound (with Ken Ueno), and has written over 150 columns for NewMusicBox, the online magazine of New Music U.S.A.
He received an M.M. degree from the Peabody Conseryatory, a B.A. magna cum laude from the University of Pennsyhania, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, where he received the Century Fellowship, the highest fellowship offered by the Humanities Division. His composition teachers have included Shulamit Ran, David Rakowski, John Eaton, Robert Hall Læwis, Ronald Caltabiano and Richard Wernick.
