Bio>
David Kirkland Garner's music reconfigures past sounds—from Bach and Schumann to minimalism and blues—into new sonic shapes and directions. He seeks to make time and history audible, particularly through an exploration of archival recordings. Of Garner's first album Dark Holler, released in 2017 by New Focus Recordings, reviewer Kevin Baldwin writes "Garner’s voice as a composer is unmistakable; with a true passion and inspiration of the music of the South, Garner creates an engaging and lively listening experience." Garner's second is the inaugural album on Sourwood Records, which he founded in 2023, called Eight Songs for Steffen Thomas written for a documentary film about the Georgia artist.
Awards received include a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, an ASCAP Young Composer Award, and first prizes in the OSSIA, Red Note, and NACUSA competitions. His music has been performed by the Kronos Quartet, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Contemporaneous, Invoke string quartet, Ciompi Quartet, Vega Quartet, South Carolina Philharmonic, San Diego Symphony, Locrian Chamber Ensemble, the Wet Ink Ensemble, the Boston New Music Initiative, Mallarmé Chamber Players, and the yMusic ensemble. Garner has published and presented scholarship on topics on the history of the banjo, Cape Breton fiddling, and minimalism.
His work with scholars Laurent Dubois and Mary Caton Lingold on Musical Passage, a digital humanities website project which focuses on the earliest transcription/composition of early Afro-diasporic music from 1688 Jamaica, led to a collaborative piece with poet Ishion Hutchinson called Mr Baptiste.
With degrees from Duke University, University of Michigan, and Rice University, Garner is an Associate Professor of Composition and Theory and the Assistant Director of the Southern Exposure New Music Series at the University of South Carolina School of Music.
Email me: davekgarner[at]gmail.com
Events/press/links >
2025
Mar 11. Performance of A Forest Unfolding by Decoda with Richard Powers at
2024
Nov 15. Performance of selections from Short Stories, vol. 1 on a Southern
Exposure New Music concert at the University of South Carolina
Oct 29. Premiere performance of Móinn for orchestra by the University of
South Carolina Symphony Orchestra conducted by Scott Weiss
Oct 23. Premiere performance of a new orchestration of Dark Holler for
earspace at Towson University
Oct 9. Premiere of Chronodrift & Nocturne for piano and electronics in a solo
recital at the University of South Carolina
May 29-June1. Paper presentation and Lecture-Recital on Chronodrift &
Nocturne at the Ninth International Conference on Music and
Minimalism in Belgrade, Serbia
May 2. Premiere performance of Eight Songs for Steffen Thomas by Claire
Bryant and Phillip Bush as part of the Madison Music Festival at
the Steffen Thomas Museum.
April 23. Article on upcoming premiere of Eight Songs for Steffen Thomas in the
Morgan Citizen A
Feb 16. Premiere performance of The Great Plains with Molly Morkoski at the
University of South Carolina
Jan 26. Performance of Short Stories, vol. 1 with Greg Stuart at the University
of Georgia
Jan 24. Performance of Short Stories, vol. 1 with Greg Stuart at Emory
University
Jan 24. Album release for Short Stories, vol. 1 on Sourwood Records
Jan 23. Melt featured on Performance Today
Jan 21. Premiere of Sonata for viola and piano, movement I by Jonathan Bagg
and Emely Phelps at Duke University
2023
Dec 3. Performance of A Forest Unfolding presented by NOVUS NY at Trinity
Church Wall Street
Oct 1. Premiere performance of Mr Baptiste by the Imani Winds and poet
Ishion Hutchinson at Duke University
Jul 24. Aspen Times review of A Forest Unfolding at the Aspen Music Festival.
Jul 22. Performance of A Forest Unfolding at the Aspen Music Festival
May 20. Melt featured on Performance Today
Apr 23. Performance of A Forest Unfolding at The National Gallery of Art in
Washington DC
Apr 16. Performance of A Forest Unfolding in Southern Pines, NC
Apr 14. Performance of Butte and A Forest Unfolding at USC in Columbia, SC
Apr 7. Performance of A Forest Unfolding at Duke University
Mar 1. Album release date for Eight Songs for Steffen Thomas
Feb 22. Performance of A Forest Unfolding by the Oberlin Contemporary
Music ensemble
Feb 19. Performance of movement VII from The Great Plains by Molly
Morkoski at Chestnut Hill College in PA
Feb 16. Premiere performance of Short Stories with Greg Stuart at USC in
Columbia, SC
Feb 13. Premiere of documentary film Steffen Thomas: Rock & Chisel
2022
Jul 6. Premiere performance of Butte with Electric Earth Concerts in NH
Concert review of Black, black, black is the colour
Melt featured on Performance Today (3-24-22)
Apr 23. Premiered by the SC Philharmonic with Morihiko Nakahara at the
Koger Center for the Arts in Columbia, SC
2021
Melt featured on Performance Today (10-26-21)
Crow Featured on Performance Today (8-28-21)
Crow featured on Performance Today (6-4-21)
2020
Podcast interview on The Composers Studio
2019
Dark Holler featured on Extra Eclectic (11-13-19)
2018
Review of “Unraveling Beethoven”
Alan Koznin’s concert review of A Forest Unfolding
Article by David Weininger on A Forest Unfolding in the Boston Globe
Review of Contemporaneous’ MATA show including DwnByThRckyMtns
2017
Dark Holler in Chicago Reader playlist
Dark Holler review in "I Care if You Listen"