Bio

David Maslanka was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1943. He attended the Oberlin College Conservatory where he studied composition with Joseph Wood. He spent a year at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and did masters and doctoral study in composition at Michigan State University where his principal teacher was H. Owen Reed.
Maslanka's music for winds has become especially well known. Among his 40-plus works for wind ensemble and band are Symphonies 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9, 12 concertos, a Mass, and many concert pieces. His wind chamber music includes four wind quintets, two saxophone quartets, and many works for solo instrument and piano. In addition, he has written a variety of orchestral and choral pieces.
David Maslanka's compositions are published by Carl Fischer, Inc., David Maslanka Publications, Kjos Music Company, Marimba Productions, Inc., the North American Saxophone Alliance, OU Percussion Press, and TrevCo Music, and have been recorded on Albany, Reference Recordings, BIS (Sweden), Naxos, Cambria, CRI, Mark, Novisse, AUR, Cafua (Japan), Brain Music (Japan), Barking Dog, and Klavier labels. He has served on the faculties of the State University of New York at Geneseo, Sarah Lawrence College, New York University, and Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York, and since 1990 has been a freelance composer. He now lives in Missoula, Montana. David Maslanka is a member of ASCAP.

Education:
Oberlin College Conservatory of Music 1961-65, BMusEd

Mozarteum, Salzburg, Austria , 1963-64

Michigan State University 1965-71, MM, PhD – Music Theory and Composition

Major teachers: H.Owen Reed, composition, Paul Harder, theory,

Elsa Ludwig-Verdehr, clarinet



Academic positions:
State University College , Geneseo , NY 1970-74

Sarah Lawrence College , Bronxville , NY 1974-80

New York University 1980-81

Kingsborough Community College (CUNY) 1981-90, Associate Professor


Since 1990 I have been a free-lance composer

Since 1980 I have been guest composer at over 100 universities, music festivals, and

conferences, and have had performances of my music around the world.


Biographical Listings:

International Who’s Who in Music

Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians


Writings on my music:

Doctoral papers and dissertations:

A Child’s Garden of Dreams – Conversations with David Maslanka

Thomas Martin Wubbenhorst

University of Missouri- Columbia – 1991



An Analytical Study of David Maslanka’s “A Child’s Garden of Dreams ”

David Martin Booth

University of Oklahoma – 1994


The Marimba Concertos of David Maslanka: An Analytical Study

Michael Varner

University of North Texas – 2000


An Analytical Study of David Maslanka’ Symphony No.2

Robert Joseph Ambrose

Northwestern University – 2001


A Child’s Garden of Dreams – Eine Analyse des Werkes so ie Beschreibung

Der in diesem Werk angewanden Kompositionstechnik

Jens Jourdan

Musikacademie der Stadt Basel – 2001


An Analytical Study of David Maslanka’s Symphony No.4

Steven Bolstad

University of Texas- Austin – 2002


An Analytical Study of David Maslanka’s “A Litany for Courage and the Seasons”

For SATB Chorus, Clarinet, and Vibraphone

Leslie Blackwell

University of Kentucky- Lexington



Book chapter:
“A Child’s Garden of Dreams ” in Teaching Music Through Performance in Band,

vol.7 – GIA Publications, Chicago , 2000 – Richard Miles, ed.