David Gompper and Wolfgang David Recital

Come and see composers David Gompper and Wolfgang David present some of their works!

Biography:

Wolfgang David and David Gompper met in 2000, when Wolfgang was on a concert tour of
the US. They began to work together as a performer and composer, which resulted in
eleven works composed by David Gompper especially written for Wolfgang David, including
a Violin Concerto that Wolfgang recorded with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for the
NAXOS label. In 2002 both musicians were invited to perform together as a violin & piano
duo in Moscow. Encouraged by this success, they have since presented over 100 concerts,
touring throughout the United States and a number of countries in Europe. While their
repertoire includes traditional works for this instrumentation, the main focus is a
combination of late romantic, standard 20th century and contemporary compositions
written especially for them. Four CDs of the duo are available: two on Albany label, and one
each on Naxos and VDE-Gallo.
In the space of a few short years, Wolfgang David has ensconced himself on the
international stage, both as a recitalist, and as a guest soloist with many leading orchestras
such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Johannesburg
Philharmonic Orchestra, Berne Symphony Orchestra, New York Virtuosi etc. He tours
regularly throughout Europe, North and South America, as well as Japan.
The winner of many competitions and prizes, David has performed in major halls
such as Konzerthaus and Musikverein Hall in Vienna, Carnegie Hall in New York, Cerritos
Center in Los Angeles, Wigmore Hall and Cadogan Hall in London, Victoria Hall in Geneva,
UNESCO Hall in Paris, Philharmonie in Cologne, Bolshoi Hall Moscow, and Bunka Kaikan
Tokyo.
He has been well received by the press — the Washington Post wrote that he
“scaled the heights of musicmaking” and The Strad described his playing “as emotionally
wide-ranging as one could hope for”.
Admitted to the University for Music in Vienna at the age of eight, David studied
there for many years with Rainer Küchl, the concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic
Orchestra. Later he continued his studies at the Musikhochschule in Cologne with Igor Ozim
and with Yfrah Neaman at the Guildhall School of Music in London.
Highlights of his career included concerts at the Great Assembly Hall of the United
Nations in New York in the presence of Secretary General Kofi Annan, and a concert in
Bangkok, given for the Queen of Thailand.
Wolfgang David performs on a violin built by Carlo Bergonzi, Cremona after 1724, on
exclusive loan to him from the Austrian National Bank.
Wolfgang David has recorded nine CDs for Albany Records, Decibel, NAXOS, Sonare
and VDE-Gallo. His recording of Beethoven’s Sonatas 6 & 8 and Franck’s Sonata together
with pianist Takeshi Kakehashi was awarded the highest recommendation for the February
2016 issue of the Japanese record magazine “Record Geijutsu“. Wolfgang David’s
interpretation of David Gompper’s Violin Concerto together with the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra under the baton of Emmanuel Siffert was praised by the critics. The Gramophone
Magazine described his collaboration with David Gompper as “a working relationship as
close and meaningful as Brahms had with Joachim.“
David Gompper has lived and worked professionally as a pianist and a composer in New
York, San Diego, London, Nigeria, Michigan, Texas and Iowa. He studied at the Royal College
of Music (ARCM, MMus) with Jeremy Dale Roberts, Humphrey Searle and Phyllis Sellick.

After teaching in Nigeria, he received his doctorate at the University of Michigan. He is
Professor of Composition at the University of Iowa and directs the Center for New Music. In
2002-2003 Gompper was a Fulbright Scholar at the Moscow Conservatory. In 2009 he
received an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York
City, and in 2013 a Fromm commission (Harvard University). The Royal Philharmonic is
recording five works for a forthcoming Naxos release: four concerti for Clarinet, Cello,
Double Bass and a Double Concerto (Violin and Cello), as well as an orchestral work entitled
Sunburst.

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