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.[1] He is the artistic director of Newspeak, an eight-piece amplified ensemble that explores the boundaries between rock and classical music,[2] and is the Chair of the composition faculty at Mannes School of Music.[3]
Recent projects include the operas JFK (Thaddeus Strassberger, director; Royce Vavrek, librettist), and Dog Days (Robert Woodruff, director; Royce Vavrek, librettist),[6]Haunt of Last Nightfall for Third Coast Percussion, AGENCY, commissioned by the Kronos Quartet as part of its 40th anniversary season,[7]Ghostlight—ritual for six players for eighth blackbird,[8]dress in magic amulets, dark, from My feet for the combined forces of The Crossing and International Contemporary Ensemble.[9] 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,[10] and several unannounced projects. Little's and the sky was still there was released Todd Reynold's Outerborough, on Innova records.[11]Hellhound, commissioned by Maya Beiser for her "All Vows" and "Uncovered" tours, has been included on her TranceClassical album.[12]
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.[13][14][15] 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,[16] 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.
[17][18]
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.[19] 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.[20]
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."[25]
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.[26]Alan Pierson, the conductor of the performance at Zankel Hall returned to conduct Newspeak for the world premiere production in New Jersey.[27]
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.[30][31]Black Lodge received a 2024 Grammy Award Nomination in the Best Opera Recording category. Its European premiere took place at the 2024 O. Festival in Rotterdam, as recipient of the 2023 Music Theatre Now Competition.[32]
SIN-EATER: a "ritual grotesquerie" for 24 voices and string quartet, SIN-EATER was commissioned and premiered by The Crossing at Penn Live Arts in September 2023, conducted by Donald Nally. Drawing on historical accounts of the sin-eater as a way to explore social inequities in contemporary culture, the libretto was fashioned by the composer from texts by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, Stephen Crane, Wilfred Owen, Harold McGee, Anne Elizabeth Moore, Jonathan Swift, Claude McKay, and others. Using "jarring transitions and juxtapositions," SIN-EATER was called, "a broad, nuanced, and often profoundly unsettling examination of how some members of society are compelled to absorb toxicity and terror so that others can live free and unharmed."[33]
What Belongs to You: What Belongs to You is an operatic adaptation of the novel by Garth Greenwell, commissioned by Alarm Will Sound and the Modlin Center for the Arts.[34] Scored for solo tenor and an orchestra of sixteen, the work will have its world premiere in September 2024 at the Modlin Center for the Arts at the University of Richmond, starring Karim Sulayman and directed by Mark Morris.[35]
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 quartet
Musik für den Schultheiß (2006/2009) for string quartet
Shock Doctrine (2009) for solo snare drum
Spalding Gray (2008) for flute, clarinet, piano, electric, contrabass
sweet light crude (2007) for soprano and ensemble
Tricky Bits (2007) for rock band
Music for The Musical Illusionist (2007) for string quartet and electronics
Three 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 Newspeak
descanso (waiting) (2004-2005) for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion
descanso (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 Works
SIN-EATER (2023) - for choir (doubling synth and percussion) and string quartet
Archaeology (2020) - for mezzo-soprano and string quintet – text by Royce Vavrek
Lessons (2019) for baritone and piano - text by Walt Whitman
hold 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 Krefting
The Three Ravens (2016) for vocal trio or choir with bass instrument
archaeology (2012) for mezzo-soprano voice and piano – text by Royce Vavrek
Last Nightfall (2011) for soprano and ensemble – text by Royce Vavrek
To A Stranger (2010) for baritone and piano – text by Walt Whitman
sweet light crude (2007) for soprano and ensemble
Songs of Love, Death, Friends and Government (2004) for soprano, clarinet, and violin
^Stetler, Carrie. "David T. Little", The Star-Ledger, July 9, 2009. Accessed October 21, 2014. "At age 8, Little was fascinated by history. When the Colonial Musketeers drumrolled through New Jersey, he was entranced by their uniforms, replicas of those worn by the Continental Marines of the Revolutionary War. His parents had just separated, and he and his mother, Joanne, left rural Blairstown for 'parade marathons' around the state to raise their spirits, so that Little wound up seeing the Hackettstown-based fife-and-drum corps at least three times in one weekend."
^Cahen, Eva. "Talking With Composers: David T. Little", Schmopera, October 10, 2018. Accessed August 8, 2022. "My school, North Warren Regional High School in Blairstown, New Jersey, had a really great music and theater program. I was very fortunate. I spent a lot of time on stage performing, singing, and dancing, in classical musicals like Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, and The Sound of Music."
