David Toub
From Sequenza21/NetNewMusic Wiki
Contents |
about
David Toub (b. 1961, Newark, NJ) has been described as a postminimalist composer. He combines a diverse background in medicine, composition, business and information technology. Initially trained as a violinist, he began composing while in junior high school in Millburn, NJ. Although primarily self-taught, he studied composition on weekends in New York City at the Mannes College of Music from 1975-1977 and at the Juilliard School of Music's Pre-College Division from 1977-1979. At Juilliard, he majored in composition and studied with Sylvia Rabinof, Craig Shuler, Rebecca Scott and Bruce Adolphe. His composition studies, however, perhaps did not have as much impact on his music as did his individual study of scores by Bartok, Schoenberg, Lutoslawski, Berg, Messiaen, Ives, Ruggles and many other 20th-century composers.
During high school, he heard the radio premiere of Einstein on the Beach by Philip Glass. While he had some awareness of minimalist music through the record library at Juilliard, Einstein was a seminal event for him. His music at the time, however, drew upon his interest in serial music. Upon graduation from Millburn High School in 1979, Toub entered the University of Chicago and graduated with an AB in the biological sciences in 1983. During college, he did research on the origin of corn with George Beadle and had an avant-garde music program on the University's radio station, WHPK-FM. At that time, new music by Reich, Glass, Young, Riley and others remained out of the mainstream. As a result of his radio program, Toub met and interviewed these and other composers, as well as Ravi Shankar and initiated a successful effort to bring alumnus Philip Glass (AB '56) and his Ensemble to the U of C campus for a concert.
Toub did not take any music courses at Chicago, focusing on the sciences and preferring to avoid the more academic and musicology-oriented dept. of music. However, he did continue to compose music, moving away from the 12-tone technique into music with repetitive structures and other modern forms. After graduation from the U. of Chicago's medical school in 1987, he completed postgraduate training in obstetrics and gynecology (Brigham and Women's/Massachusetts General Hospital, Albert Einstein Medical Center), as well as fellowship training in pelvic surgery (Graduate Hospital, Philadelphia), and became board certified in ob/gyn in 1996. He has held memberships in numerous professional organizations, and has published several clinical and research articles and abstracts in peer-reviewed journals. In combination with his active clinical activities, Toub also remained very active as a composer, although he was not in regular contact with musicians and composers. He would notate many of his works during downtime in the hospital, and the advent of computer-based notation enabled him to use a laptop computer for this purpose while on call in the hospital.
In 1998, Toub left clinical practice at Pennsylvania Hospital to pursue his interests in information technology, clinical informatics and medical education. In 2003, he received an MBA degree, concentrating in management information systems, from Drexel University. He has done work in managed care, medical writing, and database analysis. He also served as medical director for clinical informatics at DoctorQuality, a startup company that produced Web-based programs for patient safety and enabled people to select doctors and hospitals based on objective criteria. Toub subsequently was Chief Medical Officer at MedCases, where he developed online continuing medical education programs for physicians and then Vice President and Medical Director at SciFluent in Newtown, PA. As of April, 2008, he left SciFluent to join a medical device startup in Redwood City, CA as Medical Director, although he continues to live just outside Philadelphia, PA.
Toub's early 12-tone work, Four Landscapes for Six Instruments was performed at the inaugural concert of North/South Consonance (Max Lifchitz, conductor) at Symphony Space in New York City on 9/17/80. In recent years, his music has become more widely available. A 96khz/24bit audio DVD containing a string quartet arrangement (mf) of the last movement of brass piece for arielle victoria is available from OgreOgress productions. His music may be found on the Web radio stations PostClassic Radio and Contemporary Classical Music, and has also been featured on Music from Other Minds on KALW-FM in San Francisco and Classical Discoveries on Princeton's WPRB-FM. objects, for marimba, piano and electronic organ, was premiered by Hugh Sung, Daniel Beliavsky and Bill Solomon at the Sequenza 21 concert at Elebash Hall, CUNY on November 20, 2006. A more recent piece, this piece intentionally left blank for keyboard or any group of instruments (open instrumentation) was premiered on May 9th, 2007 by the Diverse Instrument Ensemble conducted by Lloyd Rogers, as arranged by Paul Bailey.
Toub has been married since 1991 to Debra Bernstein, and they have two children: Arielle (born 1995) and Isaac (born 2002). They live in Wyncote, PA. Toub has also been active in reproductive rights for many years, was interim medical director at Planned Parenthood in Philadelphia, and is presently a board member of the Philadelphia ACLU. He has also been a buddy volunteer with ActionAIDS in Philadelphia for several years. Toub continues to compose music for different instrumental groupings, much of which may be found on a music section of his Web site.
Toub does not align himself with any particular school or movement, although in some ways his music could fall under the rubric of Postminimalism. While influenced by many composers, including Feldman, Reich, Glass, Webern, Messiaen, Bartok and others, he strives to follow his own voice and ideas. He also believes very strongly in making his music freely available through the Web. Recent works include darfur pogrommen (open instrumentation), for philip glass (a two-hour work for string quartet in one extended section that has nothing to do with the aforementioned composer), this piece intentionally left blank ), for roger copland (2005), and piece #1 for electronic organ (2004). Information about some of Toub's works may be found here.
major works
(scores and MP3 files of most of these are freely available by clicking here)
bs piece (double canon for bill solomon) (six marimbas)
< 10' (open instrumentation)
ushabti (violin and piano)
darfur pogrommen (open instrumentation)
this piece intentionally left blank (keyboard or any set of instruments)
for philip glass (string quartet)
vector music for edward hopper (piano solo)
brass piece for arielle victoria (brass ensemble)
pieces #1, #2, #3 for electronic organ
cantorials (electronic organ and string orchestra)
digitals (string orchestra)
streams of consciousness (string orchestra)
quadratics (chorus)
mf (string quartet)
two sets for string quartet
objects (marimba, piano, electronic organ)
five notes for christina fong (string quartet)
four landscapes for six instruments
for roger copland (alto flute)
textbook: music of solitary landscapes in hyperspace (piece for IPS) [piano solo]
improvisational study #1: shingon mandaras (piano solo)
seven songs after poetry of James Joyce (soprano and piano)
ineffabilities (piano solo)
ariel (violin and piano)
oblivions (chorus)
improvisational study #3: songs of isolation (orchestra)
canonical ensembles (chamber group)
external links
david's waste of bandwidth (blog)
