Well known and performed often, composer David Garner’s body of work reflects his decades of musical training, historical knowledge, theatrical flair and humor. Composer David Garner has been creating uniquely beautiful works for over 25 years and interest in his music continues to build. Phenomenon, the newest CD of Garner’s music, will be released in July, 2007. Produced by PentaTone Classics, the recording features Lisa Delan, Francisco Araiza, Suzanne Mentzer, William Stone and Stephanie Friede, with pianist Kristin Pankonin and members of the San Francisco Symphony. Recorded works are Spoon River Songs, Fireflies and Willows, Viñetas Flamencas and Phenomenal Woman. Lisa Delan's solo recording, scheduled for similar release date, features Garner's Annettes Lieder, with acclaimed cellist Matt Haimowitz.
Also on the agenda for 2007 are performances of Seis Capriches de García Lorca in New York, the premiere of Garner’s Piano Trio in San Francisco, the University of Utah’s production of The Money Tree, in Salt Lake City, UT and a performance series and CD of his arrangements of Persian traditional songs, in collaboration with mezzo-soprano Raeeka Shehabi-Yaghmai.
Recent career highlights include the premiere of Five Chokas for The Princess at the SF Asian Art Museum, the premiere of Garner's guitar composition Raghs at the Ordu International Guitar Festival in Turkey, the premiere and CD release of Cuadro Cuadrangulos by QUADRE, the Costa Rica performance of Seis Capriches de García Lorca (as part of Berlin’s Ibero-American Institute’s “Federico García Lorca Project ,”), with Manuel Marin, tenor; the New York premiere of Phenomenal Woman, performed by Frederica von Stade, Lisa Delan, Zhang Cao and Kristin Pankonin, and an additional New York performance of Phenomenal Woman at the Salander O’Rielly Gallery. Garner continues to receive numerous commissions from Bay Area soloists and ensembles and international artists, including the San Francisco Chamber Singers, Citywinds, the Beaumont Ensemble, the New Music Ensemble, QUADRE, Japanese Tanka master Mutsuo Shukuya, Susanne Mentzer, and the Iranian Guitar Duo. His one-act opera, The Money Tree, with libretto by Dan Linden Cohen, premiered to critical acclaim in 2000. Besides his native English, he has written vocal chamber-music in Spanish, Catalan, German, Renaissance Italian, modern Greek and Japanese.
Prof. Garner has taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1979. He held the Chair of the Department of Musicianship and Music Theory from 1984 until 1999, and is the recipient of the 1997 George Sarlo Family Foundation Outstanding Professor Award. Garner studied piano with Virginia Danforth, Beatrice Beauregard, and Nathan Schwartz, and cello with Priscilla Parsons and Roman Dukson.
Garner is a member of Broadcast Music, Inc., and is represented by Jennifer Lucas.