Composer David Gompper to present composition colloquium perform in concert Oct. 28

David Gompper, composer and pianist, will present a composition class Sunday, Oct. 28 at 5 p.m. in the Jenson-Noble Music Hall Choir Room on the Luther College campus. Gompper will discuss his work and play excerpts from several of his compositions.

Gompper and baritone Stephen Swanson, University of Iowa professor of voice, will also perform a concert Sunday at 7 p.m. in the Noble Recital Hall. The concert, titled “Songs of War,” features music that responds to the experiences of war, compositions by a variety of composers including Gompper.

The events are free and open to the public.

Since 1991 Gompper has been professor of composition and director of the Center for New Music at the University of Iowa. In 2002-03 Gompper taught, performed and conducted at the Moscow Conservatory in Russia as a Fulbright Scholar. Working as a professional pianist, conductor and composer, he has resided in New York, San Diego, London, Nigeria, Michigan, Texas and Iowa.

Gompper studied at the Royal College of Music in London with composers Jeremy Dale Roberts and Humphrey Searle and talented concert pianist Phyllis Sellick. He received the doctorate from the University of Michigan and taught at the University of Texas, Arlington shortly thereafter. Gompper has also taught at University of Nigeria-Nsukka and the University of Minnesota.

His compositions are performed throughout the United States and Europe. In 1999 his original work “Transitus” premiered at Carnegie Hall. Several of his works have premiered in London’s Wigmore Hall, including “Hommage à W. A. (William Albright)” and “Shades of Love,” a song cycle on the poetry of Constantine Cavafy.

Gompper has recorded two CDs by Albany Records. The Slovak Radio Orchestra will record his Violin Concerto, written for Wolfgang Dávid, in November 2007, and an original piece for two violins and string orchestra will premiere in December in Durres, Albania.