David Froom

His music has been performed extensively throughout the United States by major orchestras, ensembles, and soloists, including, among many others, the Louisville, Seattle, Utah, League/ISCM, and Chesapeake Symphony Orchestras, the United States Marine and Navy Bands, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the 21st Century Consort, Boston Musica Viva, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt, and the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet.

His music has been heard in performance in England, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Holland, Cyprus, China, Australia, and New Zealand.

His music has been described as “intensely dramatic yet deeply formal,” “intellectually engaging, explosive with imagination and with a satisfying visceral power,” balancing “diatonic pastoralism with acerbic angularity, Stravinskian rhythmic urgency with lyrical counterpoint.” Among his most critically acclaimed works are “Circling,” Sonata for Solo Violin, 2nd Piano Trio, and Amichai Songs.

Among his most frequently performed music is his saxophone music, which includes a saxophone quartet, “Flying High” for solo alto saxophone, and “Arirang Variations” for alto saxophone, bassoon, and piano.

All of his works, are published by the American Composers Alliance.

David Froom (December 14, 1951 – June 19, 2022 ) was an American composer and college professor.

Froom was born in 1951 in California.

After playing rock music in a band with guitarist Gary Pihl and his brother Mitchell Froom, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

As a graduate student, he studied under William Kraft, Humphrey Searle and Robert Linn (composer) at the University of Southern California, earning a Master of Music Composition degree in 1978.

In 1984, he earned a D.M.A. degree in composition from Columbia University, where he studied with Mario Davidovsky and Chou Wen-chung.

He had a Fulbright grant for study at Cambridge University, where he studied with Alexander Goehr, and fellowships to the Tanglewood Music Festival, the Wellesley Composers Conference, and MacDowell Colony.

Froom wrote music for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestra, with and without voice.

Froom taught at the University of Utah, the Peabody Institute, and the University of Maryland, College Park, and he was on the faculty at St. Mary's College of Maryland from 1989 until his death in 2022.

He has received awards and honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, (the Charles Ives Scholarship, the Academy Award ), the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, the Koussevitzky Foundation of the Library of Congress, the Barlow Foundation, and was a five-time recipient of an Individual Artist Award from the State of Maryland.

Froom's work has, since 1991, appeared regularly on the concerts of the 21st Century Consort, the new music ensemble-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution.

They have premiered and recorded many of his works.

Froom was married to pianist Eliza Garth.

They share two daughters, Rosalie and Ana.

Froom's awards include the following:

Groom's notable works include: