“David Lipten is one of America's finest composers. I have had the distinct pleasure of recording How To and A Widow’s Song for chorus, and was absolutely bowled over by their beauty, craftsmanship, and emotional impact…my New York Virtuoso Singers felt the same. Please consider performing them soon."
Harold Rosenbaum, conductor, New York Virtuoso Singers and Canticum Novum Singers
“…I find…Time's Dream, to be a thing of rare and unusual beauty…David Lipten manages to combine pitch, interval and harmony in perfect balance with the human voice to create a deeply layered, oddly emotive and expressive sound world…it is…of an intellect touched by the profundity of the written text…I find myself drawn to it over and over again.”
Jean-Yves Duperron of “The Classical Music Sentinel”
Show of Hands is “dynamic and impactful.”
Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review
"Tongue & Groove…[featured] John Adams-style riffs in the strings built up in head-bobbing accompaniments that resembled authentic electronic dance music — some passages sounded like something you might actually get down to at a…club."
Joe Cadigan of "San Francisco Classical Voice"
David Lipten is a composer whose music explores motion, compression, accumulation, and interruption through a distinctive language of rhythmic vitality, expressive lyricism, and intricate linear design. His work has been praised for its “strong sense of direction, a fluid syntax and an inventive linear-abstract melodic gift” (Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music).
Lipten’s compositions have been performed by ensembles and artists including the New York New Music Ensemble, the Chester Quartet, the Bienen Contemporary Ensemble with Donald Nally, Volti, the New York Virtuoso Singers with Harold Rosenbaum, Axiom Brass, the Verdehr Trio, Cosmos New Music, and Arx Duo. Recent performances include the world premiere of Double Down at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall by Cosmos New Music, Double Clutch for harp performed by Sandrine Chatron in France, Tongue & Groove for oboe and strings premiered by Elevate Ensemble in San Francisco, and Slipstream for vibraphone and marimba performed by Arx Duo.
His music has received recognition through commissions and awards from organizations including the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, the Verdehr Trio, Cosmos New Music, and Axiom Brass. His string quartet Ictusreceived first prize from the Portland Chamber Music Festival Composers Competition, Tongue & Groove was selected for the Elevate Ensemble Call for Scores, and his piano work Show of Hands received the Jeffrey Jacob Piano Music Competition Award.
Lipten’s music appears on the recordings Best Served Cold (Ablaze Records, 2012) and Requiem for the Innocent (4-Tay, 2016), featuring performances by Volti and the New York Virtuoso Singers under Harold Rosenbaum. His choral cycle How To (poems by William Reichard) received second place in the 2018 American Prize competition.
A fellow of the Yaddo, MacDowell, Brush Creek, and Hambidge artist colonies, Lipten holds a Ph.D. in composition from Duke University, where he studied with Scott Lindroth, an M.A. from Queens College/CUNY, where he studied with Thea Musgrave, and a B.A. from Hampshire College, where he studied with Lew Spratlan.