SIMMONS, DAVID (b. 1950)

David Simmons was born in 1950 to a Southern Baptist preacher in Fort Worth, Texas and grew up in Riverside, California where his father served as president of California Baptist College. He became interested in music at the age of twelve, and has been composing music ever since. He received a Masters degree in music theory and composition from the University of California, Riverside in 1988. As a music teacher, his objective is to promote learning by making music with the students and to encourage their musical curiosity and creativity.

 

As a composer, David Simmons follows his ears and provides whatever it takes to entertain people by finding the right balance between originality and what they already know and expect. He remembers that when he was growing up, there was still a battle being fought between the avant-garde and composers which were viewed as culturally reactionary (i.e. “tonal”). He loves, admires and respects the music of Stravinsky, Stockhausen, Ligeti, and Berio and wishes that the world had not turned away from them so completely. He feels the influence of a wide breadth of historical musicians and cultures— Guillaume de Machaut, Hildegard of Bingen, 16th century polyphony, John Dowland’s lute songs, Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Haydn’s Paris Symphonies, Italian opera, Beethoven’s Quartets, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Messaien, minimalism, Count Basie, Howling Wolf, Woody Guthrie, Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, the Talking Heads, Barry White, Georgia Sea Island songs, Sacred Harp fuguing tunes, Indonesian gamelan music, the music of the Ba’ambuti, Ma’ambuti, Babira and Bawa tribes of what is now called Zaire, Chinese Classical music, Gagaku and Nagaku court music, the traditional music of India and the Middle East, and of Eastern and Central Europe.

 

David Simmons resides in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin where he directs a women’s chorus and teaches school music.