Donald Reid Womack
Professor of Composition & Theory
on sabbatical until Fall 2008
Donald Reid Womack is the composer of more than sixty works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, and voice. His music has been performed and broadcast throughout the United States, as well as in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Italy, Poland, Argentina, New Zealand, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, and Puerto Rico, and is published by Akamai Music, Dorn Publications, and C.F. Peters Corporation. Born in 1966, Dr. Womack holds Doctoral and Masters degrees in composition from Northwestern University, Bachelors degrees in philosophy and music theory from Furman University, and has participated in such festivals as the Conservatoire Americain in Fontainebleau, France, the June in Buffalo Festival, and the Aspen Music Festival. He has also been a fellow at the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences. The many organizations that have honored his music include ASCAP, Meet the Composer, The American Music Center, Arts Midwest, The Society of Composers, Sigma Alpha Iota, The National Association of Composers, The National Association for Advancement in the Arts, The Tampa Bay Composers' Forum, Northwestern University, The Music Teachers' National Association, and The American String Teachers Association. Most recently, Dr. Womack received a Fulbright Senior Researcher Grant to live and work in Japan during the 2007-08 season, where he is currently guest composer-in-residence with the Tokyo-based Japanese instrumental ensemble AURA-J.
The recipient of more than fifty grants and commissions, Dr. Womack was awarded Individual Artist Fellowships from the Hawai'i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts in 1997 and again in 2002, becoming the only artist in any field to be twice honored. Performances of his work include his Tennessee Crossroads by the Louisville Orchestra, Violin Concerto – In questi tempi di Conflitto, by violinist Ignace Jang and the Honolulu Symphony, Emerald Sparks by the Honolulu Symphony, On Fields of Frozen Fire by the Honolulu Symphony, Out of the Blues by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Bruner's Grove by the Symphony of the Mountains (Tennessee) and Westmoreland (Pennsylvania) Symphony, Na Iwi o Pele (The Bones of Pele) by the Red Hot Lava Chamber Players, Line Drive by Asia Ensemble, Bend by AURA-J, and O magnum mysterium by the Hawai'i Vocal Arts Ensemble. His works can be heard on the Albany, Equilibrium, Tokyo CMC, and MMC labels, as well as on recordings produced by the University Hawai‘i. In 2006 the Honolulu Symphony premiered After, a concerto for shakuhachi, koto, and orchestra, commissioned in memoriam to the Ehime Maru tragedy.
Dr. Womack's interests lie in enriching a traditional approach to composition with the fertile possibilities of multi-cultural interaction inspired by his home of Hawai'i. Combining a rich tonal language, an intricate use of color and texture, and an exploration of multiple perceptions of rhythm, his music employs both traditional and non-Western media with the ultimate goal of communicating emotions and ideas. His works have used as subject matter themes from Hawaiian culture, Blues, jazz, bluegrass, and Southern American folksongs. Of particular interest is composing for non-Western instruments, and he has significantly added to the body of new literature for Asian instruments, both alone and in combination with Western instruments.
The subject of critical acclaim, Dr. Womack’s work has been hailed as “original, creative, and ingenious” by the Akahata (Tokyo) Shimbun, “wonderfully mellow” by the Buffalo (NY) Daily News, and “distinctive, stirring, and exciting” by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, which also described his Violin Concerto as “a powerful work, impressively crafted, that impacts listeners on a visceral level.”
In 1996 the German periodical Neue Musikzeitung placed Dr. Womack among a group of young American composers who “justify hopes that America should be capable of providing stimulus for a new century”. He was also the subject of an article in the May 1998 issue of the international periodical Islands Magazine, which described the creation and premiere of his orchestral work On Fields of Frozen Fire, a work inspired by lava fields of the Big Island. As an active supporter of contemporary music and chamber music nationally and in the Hawai'i community, he has directed numerous festivals and concerts of contemporary music. A faculty member at the University of Hawai'i since 1994, Dr. Womack presently serves as professor of composition and theory.