"David Brunner's music is lyrical, fresh-sounding and always creative.  His music is a favorite with the choir as well as the audience!"

Lynne Gackle
School of Music
Baylor University

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Sunday
Nov172019

A Busy Fall

It's been a busy fall for new works!  In addition to the new treble version of HIGH FLIGHT for Martha Shaw and the Spivey Hall Children's Chorus and SPIRIT OF THE LAKE for Nancy Plantinga and the Lakeshore Community Chorus in Saugatuck, Michigan, I rescored WELL SUNG SONG for Ahra Cho's Little OL Korea choir.  THE UNKNOWN REGION for SATB chorus and piano was delivered to Robert Lamb and the Brevard Community Chorus for their 50th anniversary a few weeks back and I just finished an arrangement of the Spanish lullaby Arrorró mi Niño for Wayland Rogers.

Saturday
Sep212019

It's Time for Pumpkin Spice!

Well, a few months have come and gone without an update and we've moved into pumpkin spice season already! I was on the graduate faculty at the VanderCook School of Music in Chicago this summer, teaching an advanced choral conducting course and directing the graduate chorale -- wonderful students in a strong program and supportive atmosphere.  (And graduation in Orchestra Hall!) A musical highlight of the summer was hearing Yo-Yo Ma play the Bach cello suites on the great lawn of Milennium Park in Chicago with Doreen Rao and friends. Loved the river and lake cruise with VanderCook students, faculty and staff, bike rides along Belmont Harbor and Lake Michigan, the Old Town Art Fair, yummy food in outdoor seating (PingPong, Spacca Napoli), and neighborhood walks.

At Martha Shaw's request, I've rescored my HIGH FLIGHT for treble voices, which she'll premiere with the Spivey Hall Children's Chorus for the ACDA Children and Youth Choir retreat in Atlanta in January.  Also finishing up SPIRIT OF THE LAKE for the 10th anniversary celebration of the Lakeshore Community Chorus in Saugatuck/Douglas, Michigan, on a new text by Michigan poet Linda Nemec Foster.  Nancy Plantinga will conduct that premiere in May.

Have begun my last semester of teaching at the University of Central Florida, which will culminate in a grand celebration concert in November.  It is, however, still hovering around 90 degrees in Orlando...

Monday
Mar042019

Chanton, mes AMIS in Beijing!

The combined choirs of the Association for Music in International Schools (AMIS) performed my CHANTON, MES AMIS, written for their choral festival in Beijing, on Saturday, March 2nd. Thanks, Scott Lounsbury, for another fantastic text in a dozen languages for these singers from thirty-eight international schools -- Bombay to Bangkok, Brussels to Beirut!

Monday
Mar042019

Hallelujah from the Heart of God premiere

The combined choirs of Valencia, Seminole and Eastern Florida state colleges, along with my own University Chorus from the University of Central Florida, sang the first performance of HALLELUJAH FROM THE HEART OF GOD in the round sanctuary of Sts. Peter & Paul catholic church in Winter Park, Florida, February 21st.  Sincere thanks to my colleagues and friends Dianna Campbell, Alan Gerber and Robert Lamb for suggesting this commissioned work collaboration.

Wednesday
Oct102018

Summer is Over

Our summer at the “prairie house” near Chicago was full of trips into the city, favorite restaurants – new and old, visits to the Art Institute and Grant Park music festival, a performance of Bernstein’s MASS at Ravinia, conducted by Marin Alsop, a week of teaching as Composer-in-Residence at the Choral Music Experience institute at Michigan State University, and several weekends in a new favorite destination, the artsy village of Saugatuck, Michigan, on the shores of the Great Lake.  

Since the last posting I attended a weekend immersion in the poetry of Kabir and Dogen with scholars Linda Hess and Kazuaki Tanahashi at the Upaya zen retreat center in Santa Fe, New Mexico.  At the invitation of Doreen Rao, it was a profound weekend of zazen meditation, gorgeous vegetarian meals, the high desert, meaningful poetry and deep silence, in preparation for starting a large-scale work on the poetry of Kabir.

Later in the summer I wrote HALLELUJAH FROM THE HEART OF GOD for three colleagues’ choirs and our biennial ChorFest, and this fall CHANTONS, MES AMIS, for the finale of the Association for Music in International School (AMIS) 2019 Honor Choir festival in Beijing, and a mixed chorus version of SPIRITUAL MUSICK, on text by Christopher Smart (as used in Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb).

Another highlight of the summer was a wheel-thrown pottery course at the Chicago Ceramic Center in the historic Bridgeport Art Center, the old Spiegel catalogue warehouse repurposed with gallery and studio spaces.  Fantastic! 

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