David T. Little

David T. Little (born October 25, 1978) is a Grammy-nominated American composer, record producer, and drummer known for his operatic, orchestral, and chamber works, most notably his operas JFK, Soldier Songs, and Dog Days which was named a standout opera of recent decades by The New York Times. He is the artistic director of Newspeak, an eight-piece amplified ensemble that explores the boundaries between rock and classical music, and is a member of the composition faculty at Mannes School of Music.
Biography
Raised in Blairstown, New Jersey, Little attended North Warren Regional High School, where he performed in school musicals.
Little's music has been performed throughout the world—including in Dresden, London, Leipzig, Edinburgh, Zürich, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Montreal, and at the Tanglewood, Aspen, MATA, Cabrillo and Holland Festivals—by such performers as the London Sinfonietta, Alarm Will Sound, eighth blackbird, So Percussion, wild Up, ensemble courage, Dither, NOW Ensemble, PRISM Quartet, the New World Symphony, Third Coast Percussion, Beth Morrison Projects, Peak Performances, American Opera Projects, the New York City Opera, the Grand Rapids Symphony and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop. He has received awards and recognition from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Meet The Composer, the American Music Center, the Harvey Gaul Competition, BMI, and ASCAP, and has received commissions from Carnegie Hall, Kronos Quartet, Maya Beiser, the Baltimore Symphony, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the University of Michigan, and Dawn Upshaw's Vocal Arts program at the Bard College Conservatory of Music, among others.
Recent projects include the operas JFK (Thaddeus Strassberger, director; Royce Vavrek, librettist), and Dog Days (Robert Woodruff, director; Royce Vavrek, librettist), Haunt of Last Nightfall for Third Coast Percussion, AGENCY, commissioned by the Kronos Quartet as part of its 40th anniversary season, Ghostlight—ritual for six players for eighth blackbird, dress in magic amulets, dark, from My feet for the combined forces of The Crossing and International Contemporary Ensemble. Upcoming works include: a new work for the London Sinfonietta, the theater work Black Lodge, with a libretto by legendary Outrider poet Anne Waldman, a new work being developed as part of The Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater's new works program, and several unannounced projects. Little's and the sky was still there was released Todd Reynold's Outerborough, on Innova records. Hellhound, commissioned by Maya Beiser for her "All Vows" and "Uncovered" tours, has been included on her TranceClassical album.
Little holds degrees from Susquehanna University (2001), the University of Michigan (2002) and Princeton University (PhD, 2011), and his primary teachers have included Osvaldo Golijov, Paul Lansky, Steven Mackey, William Bolcom, and Michael Daugherty. He has taught music in New York City through Carnegie Hall's Musical Connections program, served as the inaugural Digital Composer-in-Residence for the UK-based DilettanteMusic.com. He is a founder of the annual New Music Bake Sale, and served as the Executive Director of New York's MATA Festival from 2010 until 2012. From 2014-2017 he served as Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia and Music-Theatre Group, and since 2015 has served on the composition faculty at Mannes School of Music in New York City. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Compositions
Stage Works
Soldier Songs: A 60-minute multimedia work for baritone and amplified septet composed in 2006, the opera Soldier Songs explores the perceptions versus the realities of a soldier, the exploration of loss and exploitation of innocence, and the difficulty of expressing the truth of war. Soldier Songs was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Opera Recording category.
Am I Born: The 30-minute oratorio for soprano, children's chorus and orchestra, Am I Born, premiered in 2012 as part of "Brooklyn Village", a multi-media concert co-produced and presented by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Brooklyn Youth Chorus and Roulette. Alan Pierson conducted the Brooklyn Philharmonic, soprano Mellissa Hughes and members of both the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and BYCA's Young Men's Ensemble. A new SATB version of the work was commissioned and premiered by Julian Wachner and The Choir of Trinity Wall Street in 2019 as part of the Prototype Festival.
Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera: Commissioned and premiered in 2010 by Bard College Conservatory of Music, Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera is a one-act operatic comedy about the Flemish folk-sport of finch-sitting. The piece was subsequently featured in New York City Opera's VOX: Contemporary Opera Lab, and was staged by soprano Lauren Flanigan at Shenandoah Conservatory. A new chamber version of the opera was commissioned by Opera Saratoga in 2018, and was turned into a film by Houston Grand Opera in 2020.
Dog Days: The first full-length collaboration with Royce Vavrek yielded the three-act opera Dog Days which premiered at Peak Performances @ Montclair State in association with Beth Morrison Projects on September 29, 2012, in a staging by director Robert Woodruff. The work starred Lauren Worsham as Lisa, a 13-year-old girl who befriends a man in a dog suit begging for scraps during a post-apocalyptic wartime scenario. Ronni Reich of The Star-Ledger wrote of Little's score: "Little's music thrashes, with dark, epic, chaotic heavy rock inspiration meeting lurching, bellowed vocal lines. ... [it is] stylistically diverse but cogent, fusing impeccable classical vocal writing, heavy metal, and musical theater."
The piece began as a commission from Carnegie Hall when Little was chosen to compose a 20-minute work of music theater as part of Dawn Upshaw and Osvaldo Golijov's workshop in collaboration with singers from Bard Conservatory. Alan Pierson, the conductor of the performance at Zankel Hall returned to conduct Newspeak for the world premiere production in New Jersey.
JFK: Little's follow-up to Dog Days with librettist Royce Vavrek is a grand opera commissioned by Fort Worth Opera, American Lyric Theater and Opéra de Montréal that focuses on the night before John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963. JFK premiered in Fort Worth, Texas, in April 2016. It later traveled to Opéra de Montréal in 2018, and received its European Premiere at Staattheater Augsburg in 2019.
Black Lodge: The first collaboration between Little and poet Anne Waldman, Black Lodge is an industrial opera in three parts. Created for rock band Timur and the Dime Museum, it was commissioned and produced by Beth Morrison Projects, and premiered in October, 2022 at Opera Philadelphia in a film-based production directed by Michael Joseph McQuilken.
What Belongs to You: Currently in development, What Belongs to You is an operatic adaptation of the novel by Garth Greenwell, commissioned by Alarm Will Sound.
Orchestral and Large Ensemble Works
1986 (2018) for string orchestra
The Conjured Life (2017) for orchestra
dress in magic amulets, dark, from My feet (2016) for choir and ensemble
HAUNTED TOPOGRAPHY (2013) for orchestra
Screamer! - a three-ring blur for orchestra (arr. 2013) for chamber orchestra
CHARM (2011) for orchestra
RADIANT CHiLD (2011) concertino for percussion and chamber orchestra
haunted topography (2011) for sinfonietta
Conspiracy Theory (2010) for big band
The Closed Mouth Speaks (2009) for baritone and orchestra
East Coast Attitude (2006) for symphonic band
Immolation (2003) - for orchestra
Valuable Natural Resources (2004) for sinfonietta
how we got here (fourth evolution) (2003) for thirteen players
Screamer! - a three-ring blur for orchestra (2002) for orchestra
Chamber and Solo Works
A Bliss of Birds (2022) for solo clarinet
Hang Together (2022) for solo piano
out here beyond the world (2021) for solo clarinet
The Crocus Palimpsest (2021) for solo cello
the earthen lack (2017) suite for solo cello
Accumulation of Purpose (2017) six studies for solo piano
Elegy (monsters are real) (2016) for solo piano
Ghostlight - ritual for six players (2015) for sextet
Hellhound (2013) for solo cello, bass, drums, and electronics
AGENCY (2013) for string quartet and electronics
and the sky was still there (2012) version for electric cello and playback
Haunt of Last Nightfall (2010) for percussion quartet and electronics
raw power (2010) for saxophone quartet and the sky was still there (2010) for electric violin and playback 1986 (2009) for string quartetMusik für den Schultheiß (2006/2009) for string quartet Shock Doctrine (2009) for solo snare drum Spalding Gray (2008) for flute, clarinet, piano, electric, contrabasssweet light crude (2007) for soprano and ensemble Tricky Bits (2007) for rock band Music for The Musical Illusionist (2007) for string quartet and electronicsThree Sams (etudes) (2007) for solo percussion oh Gott, es regnet (2006) for electric guitar quartet Red Scare Sketchbook (2005) for saxophone and percussion Electric Proletariat (2005) for Newspeakdescanso (waiting) (2004-2005) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussiondescanso (after omega) (2004) for solo clarinet and ensemble Speak Softly (2004) for four percussionists playing sticks of varying bigness for Amos (2004) for piano trio Piano Trio (2003-2004)Sunday Morning Trepanation (2002) for mixed quartet and playback hope in the proles. (2002) for sextet
Vocal WorksArchaeology (2020) - for mezzo-soprano and string quintet – text by Royce VavrekLessons (2019) for baritone and piano - text by Walt Whitmanhold my tongue (2018) for voice and track Eleven Fragments for the Book of Dreams (2017) for solo baritone or mezzo-soprano voice – text by Sonja KreftingThe Three Ravens (2016) for vocal trio or choir with bass instrument archaeology (2012) for mezzo-soprano voice and piano – text by Royce VavrekLast Nightfall (2011) for soprano and ensemble – text by Royce VavrekTo A Stranger (2010) for baritone and piano – text by Walt Whitmansweet light crude (2007) for soprano and ensemble Songs of Love, Death, Friends and Government (2004) for soprano, clarinet, and violin
Awards
2002 BMI Student Composer Award
2003 Charles Ives Prize
2004 BMI Student Composer Award
2005 Harvey Bartlett Gaul Prize
2006 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award
2022 Grammy Award Nomination for Best Opera Recording, Soldier Songs2022 International Opera Awards, Shortlist for Best Digital Opera, Soldier Songs2022 Opera America Award for Excellence in Digital Opera for Soldier Songs''
References
External links
List of compositions, Boosey & Hawkes
1978 births
21st-century American composers
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century classical composers
American classical composers
American male classical composers
American opera composers
Living people
Male opera composers
People from Blairstown, New Jersey
Susquehanna University alumni
University of Michigan alumni