2004 Commissioned Composer

David L. Brunner brings to the podium the dynamic perspective of conductor, music educator and composer.  His wide and varied expertise embraces all ages in professional, university, public school, community, church and children’s choruses.  Dr. Brunner is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Central Florida, where he conducts the University Chorus and Madrigal Singers, teaches courses in conducting and music education, and coaches private composition students.  In both 1995 and 2000 he received a College of Arts and Sciences Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award and in 1995 the University Excellence in Teaching Award, UCF’s highest teaching honor.  He is also the recipient of a Research Incentive Award (2002) and two Teaching Incentive Awards (1993 and 1996).  In 1996 he received a National Award for College Teaching from the Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning.  He has been Artistic Director and Conductor of Gloria Musicae, Florida’s professional chamber chorus; Guest Conductor of the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, the Principal Chorus of the Florida Orchestra; and Music Director of the Florida Ambassadors of Music, which tours Europe biannually.  His European appearances include performances at the Seminar für Klassiche Musik at the Eisenstädter Sommerakademie in Eisenstadt and Vienna, Austria, in St. Mark’s Basilica, Venice, at St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Wesley’s Chapel, London, and at the Vatican for Pope John Paul II.  His choirs have appeared at state and divisional conventions of both the American Choral Directors Association and the Music Educators National Conference.

Brunner is well known for his compelling and imaginative work with singers of all ages and has conducted All-State and regional honor choirs throughout the United States at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.  He has appeared in twenty-five states and abroad, as a clinician for the American Choral Directors Association, the Association of British Choral Directors, the Kodaly Society of Canada, the International Cathedral Music Festival at Salisbury and Canterbury, the International Band and Choir Festival at the Hague, the American Schools in London and Paris and the International School of Munich, the Allerton Retreat for Choral Music Education at the University of Illinois, the Hartt School Summerterm, the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, the Music Educators National Conference, the American Guild of Organists, the Choristers Guild, the Perspectives Choral Workshop in Santa Fe, and the Choral Music Experience International Institute for Teacher Training, and is a popular clinician and guest conductor of honor choirs, choral festivals and educational workshops throughout North America and Europe.

David Brunner’s compositions resonate with imagination, lyricism and vitality.  His music has been performed worldwide by children’s choirs, middle and high school singers, college, community and professional choirs; at state, regional, and national meetings of the American Choral Directors Association and the national Kodaly Conference; the Choral Music Experience Institute for Choral Teacher Training in England, the U.S., Sweden and Scotland; the International Academy of Choral Music in Parthenay, France; the Voices 500 Festival in Newfoundland, Canada; the Europa Cantat in Germany; the American Cantat in Venezuela; the International Cathedral Music Festival at Canterbury Cathedral and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, on the Today Show, and at EPCOT and Carnegie Hall.  In October 2000 his Hold Fast Your Dreams was sung by children from around the world at a pre-Olympics cultural event in Salt Lake City.  The New York Times has regarded him as a notable figure in choral music, a “prolific choral writer whose name figures prominently on national repertory lists.” (24 April 2003).

Brunner has been Composer-in-Residence at the Summer Arts Institute of the University of Michigan and the Choral Music Experience Institute for Teacher Training at Northern Illinois University, the Hartt School of Music, Queenswood School in England and St. Andrew’s, Scotland.  He joined a prestigious list of American composers when he was named the Raymond W. Brock Commissioned composer for 2000 by the American Choral Directors Association (The Circles of Our Lives) and that year was also commissioned by the Copland foundation to contribute new adaptations of several of the Old American Songs to Boosey & Hawkes’ Copland 2000 series.  His work can be heard on the compact disc We Are the Music-Makers: The Choral Music of David L. Brunner and many independent recordings by choirs around the world.  He is the recipient of yearly ASCAP awards since 1997 and is published exclusively by Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.  He is editorial advisor for Boosey & Hawkes popular Conductor’s Choice series and has served on the editorial board of the Choral Journal.  He is the author of articles in the Choral Journal and Music Educators Journal.

The past year he conducted choirs in Illinois, Wisconsin, Tennessee, West Virginia, Florida, New York and Vancouver; appeared as a clinician for the Tennessee ACDA state conference, Northern Illinois University School of Music, Cascade 2002 for the Ontario (Canada) Music Educators Association, and conducted his Ode to the Present and Future Days with 180 singers and orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

This year he conducts choirs in Oklahoma, Illinois, Pennsylvania and California and the National Mennonite High School Choral Festival in Virginia; appears as clinician for the Tennessee Arts Academy in Nashville; and serves on the conducting faculty for the New Millennium Festival and Choral Music Experience Institute in Cardiff, Wales.  In November his university singers collaborate with the Orlando Opera and Cirque du Soleil in a new production of Orff’s Carmina Burana.  New works premiere in Boston for the Eastern Division ACDA, in Louisville for the Kentucky Music Educators Association All-State Children’s Chorus, and in Illinois for the 20th anniversary of the Young Naperville Singers.

Daring to Be—commission funded by a grant from the Naperville Sunrise Rotary Fund for the Arts
Daring to Be—for the 20^th Anniversary of YNS Spring 2004