David Kirkland Garner and Ari Streisfeld will join the faculty in fall 2016

David Kirkland Garner joins the School of Music in fall 2016 as assistant professor of composition and theory. Garner writes chamber, orchestral, electroacoustic and vocal works often drawing on other music as a point of departure, from Beethoven to bluegrass. A frequent source of Garner’s inspiration is the music of the American South, the rich recorded history of early roots music, the cultural fascination with Southern banjo styles and Cape Breton traditional fiddle and piano music. His scholarship on Cape Breton fiddling, centering around analytical study of tempo, was recently published by the MUSICultures journal of the Canadian Journal for Traditional Music.

Garner has worked with world-renowned ensembles including the Kronos Quartet, which commissioned a work based on the music of the Scottish diaspora. His awards include a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, an ASCAP Young Composer Award, and first prizes in the OSSIA, Red Note, and NACUSA competitions. He is currently working on a new work for fiddle and string quartet commissioned by the Ciompi Quartet to premiere in spring 2017.

Garner holds degrees from Duke University (Ph.D. 2014), University of Michigan (M.M. 2007), and Rice University (B.M. 2005), and has taught music theory and aural skills at Duke, Kennesaw State, North Carolina State and Elon Universities.

Also joining the School of Music as assistant professor of violin pedagogy in the fall is Ari Streisfeld. He has garnered critical acclaim worldwide for his performances of diverse repertoire and has established himself as one of the foremost interpreters of contemporary classical music. Streisfeld, a founding member of the world renowned JACK Quartet, has been praised for his “dazzling performance” by the New York Times and “scintillating playing” by New York Classical Review. Recent season highlights include performances at Wigmore Hall (London), La Salle Pleyel (Paris), Teatro Colon (Argentina), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Bali Arts Festival (Indonesia), Carriage Works (Sydney, Australia), Venice Biennale (Italy), Carnegie Hall, The Library of Congress, The Morgan Library (New York), the Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), and the Salzburg Festival (Austria). He has collaborated with many of today’s most prominent composers and has recorded for Mode, Albany, Carrier, Innova, Canteloupe and New World Records.

Together with his wife, mezzo-soprano Rachel Calloway, he formed Duo Cortona, a contemporary music ensemble dedicated to the creation of new works for the unique instrumentation of mezzo-soprano and violin. He is also a member of Shir Ami, an ensemble dedicated to the performance and preservation of Jewish art music.

Streisfeld holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (B.M.), Northwestern University (M.M.), and Boston University (D.M.A.).