David Conte is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

. He has been a Professor of Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music

San Francisco Conservatory of Music

San Francisco Conservatory of Music, formerly the California Conservatory of Music, founded in 1917, is a music school, with an enrollment of about 400 students. It was launched by Ada Clement and Lillian Hodgehead in the remodeled home of Lillian's parents on Sacramento Street. It was called the...

 since 1985, and Composer-in-Residence with Thick Description

Thick description

In anthropology and other fields, a thick description of a human behavior is one that explains not just the behavior, but its context as well, such that the behavior becomes meaningful to an outsider....

 since 1990.

Conte earned a BM

Bachelor of Music

Bachelor of Music is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree; the majority of work consists of prescribed music courses and study in applied music, usually requiring a...

 from Bowling Green State University

Bowling Green State University

Bowling Green State University, often referred to as Bowling Green or BGSU, is a public, coeducational research university located in Bowling Green, Ohio, United States. The institution was granted a charter in 1910 by the State of Ohio as part of the Lowry Bill, which also established Kent State...

 and a MFA

Master of Fine Arts

A Master of Fine Arts is a graduate degree typically requiring 2–3 years of postgraduate study beyond the bachelor's degree , although the term of study will vary by country or by university. The MFA is usually awarded in visual arts, creative writing, filmmaking, dance, or theatre/performing arts...

 and DMA

Doctor of Musical Arts

The Doctor of Musical Arts degree is a doctoral academic degree in music. The D.M.A. combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization with graduate-level academic study in subjects such as music history, music theory, or music pedagogy. The D.M.A...

 from Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, where he studied with Karel Husa

Karel Husa

Karel Husa is a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition...

 and Steven Stucky

Steven Stucky

Steven Stucky is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he studied music in the public schools and, privately, viola with Herbert Preston, conducting with Leo Scheer, and...

. Conte studied with Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger

Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 on a Fulbright Scholarship, and in 1982 worked with Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...

 while preparing a study of Copland's manuscript

Manuscript

A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...

 sketches. Conte received a Conducting Fellowship at Aspen Music Festival, and the Ralph Vaughan Williams Fellowship. He has served on the faculties of Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, Colgate University

Colgate University

Colgate University is a private liberal arts college in Hamilton, New York, USA. The school was founded in 1819 as a Baptist seminary and later became non-denominational. It is named for the Colgate family who greatly contributed to the university's endowment in the 19th century.Colgate has 52...

, and the Interlochen Center for the Arts

Interlochen Center for the Arts

Interlochen Center for the Arts is a privately owned, 1,200 acre arts education institution in Interlochen, Michigan, roughly 15 miles southwest of Traverse City...

. While at Cornell, he served as both the assistant director and acting director of the Cornell University Glee Club

Cornell University Glee Club

The Cornell University Glee Club is the oldest student organization at Cornell University, having been organized shortly after the first students arrived on campus in 1868. The CUGC is a sixty-member chorus for male voices, with repertoire including classical, folk, 20th century music, and...

, for whom he composed numerous works.

Conte has received commissions from Chanticleer

Chanticleer (ensemble)

Based in San Francisco, California, Chanticleer is a full-time classical vocal ensemble in the United States. Over the last three decades, it has developed a major reputation for its interpretations of Renaissance music, but it also performs a wide repertoire of jazz, gospel, and other venturesome...

, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus

San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus

The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus is the world's first openly gay chorus, one of its largest and the group most often credited with creating the LGBT choral movement....

, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Oakland-East Bay Symphony, and the Stockton Symphony

Stockton Symphony

The Stockton Symphony Association is an American orchestra based in Stockton, California. It was founded in 1926 by Manlio Silva and is the third oldest orchestra in California.Since 1995 Peter Jaffe has been music director and conductor.-Concert halls:...

, and has composed songs for Barbara Bonney

Barbara Bonney

-Early life:Bonney was born in Montclair, New Jersey. As a child she studied piano and cello. When Bonney was 13 her family moved to Maine, where she became part of the Portland Youth Orchestra as a cellist...

, Thomas Hampson, and Phyllis Bryn-Julson. He works list includes three operas, works for orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

, and numerous pieces for solo organ

Organ (music)

The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

, chorus and organ, solo voice and organ, and chorus and orchestra. Conte's music is published exclusively by E. C. Schirmer and his music is represented on numerous commercial CD recordings.

Choral Works

• Cantate Domino (SATB 1975)
• Canticle (From Three Sacred Pieces - TTBB 1982; SATB 1984)
• The Waking (SATB 1985)
• Invocation and Dance (TTBB 1986; SATB 1989)
• Ave Maria (SATB 1991)
• In Praise of Music (SSA 1991; SATB 1994)
• Charm me asleep (SATB 1993)
• Elegy for Matthew (TTBB 1999: SATB 2000)
• A Hope Carol (SSAA 2006)
• The Nine Muses (ACDA Brock commission; SATB 2007)
• An Exhortation (Premiered at the Presidential Inauguration of President Barack Obama; TTBB, SSAA, SATB 2009)
• Omittamus Studia
• Valediction
• Hosana

Operas

• Gift of the Magi
  Gift of the Magi (opera)
  The Gift of the Magi is a chamber opera in four scenes with music by David Conte and libretto by Nicholas Giardini. Based on the short story of the same title by O. Henry, the opera focuses on Jim and Della, who are a poor married couple and cannot afford to buy each other presents for Christmas...
  
  
• The Dreamers
  The Dreamers (opera)
  The Dreamers is a chamber opera in four scenes with music by David Conte and libretto by Philip Littell.Commissioned and premiered by Sonoma City Opera in September 1996, the opera centers around a town of "dreamers" who, though separated by sexual, racial, and cultural differences, are brought...
  
  
• Firebird Motel
• America Tropical

Sources

• A Study of David Conte's Secular SATB Choral Works with Non-Orchestral Score Complement by Dr. Michael Artemus Conran(Doctoral Dissertation, University of Arizona, 2003)
• An Analysis of Selected Choral Works of David Conte Utilizing Ensemble Accompaniment by Dr. Marlen Dee Wilkins (Doctoral Dissertation, University of Northern Colorado, 2011)
• Collegiate Faculty profile San Francisco Conservatory of Music
• David Conte - Composer Biography on Famous The Opera website

External links

• Official web site