The Composer
David Eddleman is a well-known composer of choral and other music, whose works have been performed on every continent except Antarctica. As a result of his 23-year tenure as Senior Editor with Silver Burdett, the leading publisher of classroom music materials in the United States, he has had considerable influence on the development of school music curricula, and he is also widely regarded as the composer of numerous songs for children. The Great Children’s Songbook received the 1998 National Parent’s Guide Award for Excellence in Children’s Media. Since 1996, Eddleman has devoted his full time to composing, teaching, and lecturing.
In addition to his classroom materials, Eddleman has published more than 650 compositions, including choral, piano, and instrumental works. His oratorio, Kolot min HaShoah (Voices from the Holocaust), premiered in April 1995 to wide acclaim. The oratorio was followed by a sequel, Avodat Chofesh (A Service of Freedom) commissioned for Israel Independence Day, first performed in April 1998, and widely used on Israel Independence Day. Eddleman’s song cycle Kokkari Lyrics, to poems of Frank Daykin, premiered at Bargemusic in New York City in June 1999. Both Kolot min HaShoah and Kokkari Lyrics were featured at the Krakow (Poland) 2000 festival, along with a retrospective of pieces written over a 30-year period and a new composition, Austin Street Riffs, which was commissioned by the Ara Ensemble of Krakow. In April-June 2009, the oratorio was given five staged performances by the Krakow Opera as part of the 13th Krakow Opera Summer Festival and then placed in the Opera’s repertory for future seasons.
Recently, Eddleman has focused his attention on writing art songs and works for instrumental ensembles, including Mallets, a piece for two percussionists that was premiered in Poland in 2003. This work had its U.S. premiere at the Juilliard School, with percussionists Greg Giannascoli and Simon Boyar. Eddleman’s song cycle Lost Shadows, also to poems by Frank Daykin, was premiered at Symphony Space in May 2004, and Journey, to texts of various poets, was premiered in the same venue in October 2005. Another song cycle, My Therapist Said, to texts by poet Hal Sirowitz, was given its first performance also at Symphony Space in May 2008. Two songs from this concert, “How Many Times Do I Love Thee, Dear” and “We Understand Each Other Perfectly,” are recorded on Elem Eley’s Drifts and Shadows CD from Albany Records.
Eddleman is currently on the faculty of the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY. During the winter months, he can be found at the Education Center in Longboat Key, FL, where he has taught and lectured since 2002. He served on the theory and composition faculty at Boston University from 1968-72, leaving there to accept his position at Silver Burdett. He was adjunct professor of music history at the College of St. Elizabeth in Morristown, NJ, from 1977-2002, and has also taught at the junior high and high school levels in Morristown and Savannah, GA.
Eddleman has been a guest lecturer for the New York City Opera Guild and, until December 2008, served on the Board of Directors of Transcontinental Music Publications, the music publishing division of the Union for Reform Judaism. He has also been a choral and classroom music clinician and choral adjudicator and has conducted choruses, including the chorus of the College of St. Elizabeth and the Macdowell Chorale, both in New Jersey, and the Third Army Chorus in Atlanta, GA, during his military service from 1960 to 1962. He has performed as a flautist with the Savannah Symphony as well as orchestras in Atlanta and Winston-Salem and has sung leading roles with regional theaters and opera companies.
Eddleman received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Boston University in 1971, where he studied composition with noted American composer, Gardner Read. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in voice and flute from Appalachian State University (1958) and the Master of Music degree in composition from Virginia Commonwealth University (1964). He has received the ASCAP Standard Panel Award annually since 1979.
Eddleman is married to Miriam Yanes Eddleman, a dancer and now-retired first-grade teacher. They reside in New Jersey.
Contact: eddlemancomposer@gmail.com