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Biography
American composer John David Earnest (b. 1940) has composed extensively for orchestra, chamber ensembles, chorus, solo voice and opera. His major orchestral works include Second Symphony, "The Hastening Light" (commissioned by the Walla Walla Symphony), Southern Exposure (commissioned by the Mobile Symphony), Chasing the Sun (recorded by the Warsaw National Philharmonic), Bountiful Voyager (commissioned by the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra), Sun Songs and Nocturnes (commissioned for Chanticleer and the New Jersey Symphony, Hugh Wolff, conductor), Piano Concerto No. 1 (commissioned by the Mid-Columbia Symphony), and Piano Concerto No. 2 (premiered in 2004 by the Sinfonia Bucharest, Robert Bode, conductor; Lee D. Thompson, piano; in Bucharest, Romania).
Mr. Earnest's major choral works include The Waking, A Van Doren Triptych, Only in the Dream, Variations on Three American Folksongs, and In After Time. His stage works include the popular The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (written with librettist Mervyn Goldstein, commissioned by the Virginia Opera in 1997); Howard (finalist in the New York City Opera American Opera Competition), and A Desperate Waltz (commissioned by Golden Fleece Composers Chamber Theater in New York City). Earnest’s new opera, The Theory of Everything (written with librettist Nancy Rhodes, commissioned by The Encompass New Opera Theatre), will be premiered in New York City in 2007.
His chamber music includes the Sonata for Piano (premiered by Lee D. Thompson); The Blue Estuaries (for soprano and seven instruments, recorded by Judith Kellock and Ensemble X on Koch International Classics), Aria and Chorale (for violin and piano; commissioned by Dona Lee Croft, premiered at St. Martin's in the Fields, London), and Trois Morceaux (New Music for Young Ensembles prize winner).
Having been a singer for many years, Earnest has a strong affinity for vocal music. His several song cycles include collaborations with poet Robert Bode: Crickets and Commas, In Tomorrow’s Fields, The Future in My Hand, and Four Songs of Sophistication, as well as the frequently performed Postcards from Frank, with writer Frank LoScalzo. In addition, he recently completed an extended dramatic cycle for tenor and piano, Songs of Hadrian, on texts by Arch Brown.
Mr. Earnest teaches composition privately in New York City. He is also composer-in-residence and visiting professor at Whitman College, Walla Walla, Washington. He has taught at Lehman College, City University of New York; and Rutgers University in New Jersey. His music is published by E.C. Schirmer Music Company, Boston, a division of ECS Publishing.
Born in Texas and educated at the University of Texas in Austin, Mr. Earnest currently lives in New York City, where he has been since 1968.
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