I'm a composer in the DMA program at the Boyer College of Music at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, currently working on my dissertation.

David Carpenter (b. 1972) has composed works in many different genres, from chamber and solo piano, to choral and orchestral. His music has been performed at the Aspen Music Festival and School (where he was a student in the Individual Studies Program in composition), the Oregon Bach Festival and the Brevard Music Center. As a composer with a special interest in vocal music, his solo cantata "Juliet" (with a text from "Romeo and Juliet") was performed by the contemporary music ensemble Brave New Works, and his choral work "Fredericksburg" was premiered by baritone William Stone with the Temple University Concert Choir and Chamber Orchestra conducted by Alan Harler, as part of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society's 2007-2008 concert series. He has also collaborated with the Momenta Quartet (New York, NY), who in 2008 performed his String Quartet and featured it on their demo CD; bassoon virtuoso Pascal Gallois, who premiered his "Three Myths for Solo Bassoon" in 2008; and the Argento Ensemble (New York, NY) who performed his Sextet in 2010. His song "The Monogamous Man" was featured as part Network for New Music's "Dialogues with Darwin" concert in Philadelphia, February 2010. His teachers include Herschel Garfein, Sydney Hodkinson, Kevin Puts and Robert Aldridge. Mr. Carpenter received degrees from Bates College (B.A., 1994) and the Peabody Conservatory (M.Mus., 1998). He is currently a doctoral student at the Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University, where he has studied with Richard Brodhead, Matthew Greenbaum and Maurice Wright.

I strive for the most honest expression in my music, which is very much in a neo-Romantic vein, influenced by the music of Aaron Copland and Benjamin Britten. I strongly believe that a composer's personal style must be allied with a thorough technical knowledge of instrumentation. As an amateur tenor, I have a great interest in vocal music, and the intersection of literature and music in vocal works.

Orchestral

Prelude, 2010, for orchestra, 6 mins.
Read by the Brevard Music Festival Orchestra, Ken Lam, conductor
Brevard, NC, August 2009

When the birds return, 2005, rev. 2008, for orchestra, 8 mins.
Read by the Orchestra of the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen, Tong Chen, conductor
Aspen, CO, August 2008

Overture Apollo, 2004, for string orchestra, 5 mins.
Premiered by the Kalistos Chamber Orchesta
Boston, MA, September 2004

Choral

Fredericksburg, 2007, for baritone solo, SATB chorus and chamber orchestra, 19 mins.
(texts: Walt Whitman, "Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night"; De Profundis (Psalm 130); Requiem Mass)
Premiered by William Stone, baritone, Temple University Concert Choir, Temple University Chamber Orchestra, Alan Harler, conductor
Philadelphia, PA, November 2007
(This work was presented as part of the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society's 2007-2008 concert series.)

Chamber

Sextet, for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, violin viola and cello, 2010, 4 mins.
Premiered by the Argento Chamber Ensemble (New York, NY)
Philadelphia, PA, April 2010

Fantasia, for violin and piano, 2009, 10 mins.
Premiered by Vladimir Dyo, violin; Mark Livshits, piano
Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, November 2009

Pastorale, for woodwind quintet, 2009, 5 mins.
Premiered by Claire Mashburn, flute; Briana Tarby, oboe; Becky Graham, clarinet; Josh Paulus, horn; Vince Karamanov, bassoon
Brevard Music Center, Brevard, NC, August 2009

Three Myths for Solo Bassoon, 2008, 8 mins.
Premiered by Pascal Gallois, bassoon
Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, October 2008

String Quartet, 2007, 5 1/2 mins.
Premiered by the Momenta Quartet
Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, January 2008

Songs

Two Songs, 2009 ("Old Adam, the carrion crow," text by Thomas Lovell Beddoes; "The Sorrow of Love," text by William Butler Yeats),
baritone, piano, 7 1/2 mins.
Premiered by Lawrence Indik, baritone; Charles Abromovic, piano
Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, January 2010

Solo voice & ensemble

Where We Are Least Alone, 2008, soprano, clarinet, violin, piano, 5 1/2 mins.
(text: Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage)
Premiered by Morgan Harmison, soprano; David Perry, clarinet; Esther Visser, violin; Brett Hodgdon, piano
Aspen Music Festival and School, Aspen, CO, August 2008

Juliet (dramatic cantata), 2004, soprano, flute, harp, 13 mins.
(text: Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet)
Premiered by Jennifer Goltz, soprano; Sarah Brady, flute; Amy Ley, harp (members of the Brave New Works new music ensemble)
Tufts University, Medford, MA, May 2004

Piano

Little Elegy, 2007, 5 mins.
Premiered by the composer
Bates College, Lewiston, ME, September 2007

When soft voices die, 2007, 6 mins.
Premiered by Jesse Jones
Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR, July 2007