David Loeb

David Loeb (born 1939, New York, US) grew up in a family with strong interests in art and music. His father had careers both as a songwriter and as a painter. David studied with Peter Pindar Stearns at the Mannes College of Music in New York. 1964 became a critical year for him: during that year he began teaching at Mannes, he began composing for early instruments (especially viols), and under the tutelage of Shinichi Yuize (1923-2015) began composing for traditional Asian instruments (chiefly Japanese). His compositions frequently draw upon combined traditions, such as Echoes from Bronze Bells for shakuhachi and viol, A Sea of Clouds for four shakuhachi and four viols, and Three Friends of Winter for pipa and cello.

More than two hundred of his compositions have been recorded, principally on the Vienna Modern Masters and Centaur labels. He has received awards from the Viola da Gamba Societies of the UK, Japan and the US; from the lnternational Society for Japanese Culture, and in competitions including the Andres Segovia Centennial and the Anton Heillor Memorial.

As a performer, he has presented lecture-recitals in Japan and the US, playing Japanese transverse flutes (shinobue, kagurabue and komabue), and has performed in chamber music programs, and as a soloist with orchestra, with chorus, with guitar ensembles, with percussion ensembles, and with groups of Japanese instruments.

He spends his vacations in Kyoto, Japan, where he and his wife Emiko live in a traditional mid-19th century machiya house which her family has possessed for more than 100 years.