David Toub

David Toub (b. 1961, Newark, NJ) is largely self-taught, with the only formal composition education consisting of attending music school (Mannes College of Music; Juilliard Pre-College Division) during weekends while in high school.

At Juilliard’s Pre-College Division, he majored in composition, studying with Craig Shuler, and also took solfege, theory and other classes with Rebecca Scott, Sylvia Rabinof and Bruce Adolphe. He graduated as part of the first “official” graduating class in 1979, while Olegna Fuschi was Director. After graduation from public high school and the Pre-College, Toub received AB and MD degrees from the University of Chicago and earned an MBA with a concentration in management information systems from Drexel University.

He remains an active composer. While Toub composed serial and dodecaphonic music until 1982, his subsequent works have been described as “minimalist,” although the durations of a subset of his compositions are anything but minimal (1.5 to over 4 hours in some cases). Toub’s music is freely available for download through his music site ( http://dbtmusic.wordpress.com ), and has been programmed on various radio stations, in concert halls and on commercial recordings. Several of his works have been performed in the US, Europe, Ukraine, Japan and Russia, including performances by North/South Consonance, the Diverse Instrument Ensemble, the percussionists Bill Solomon and Mike Lunoe, the San Diego New Music/NOISE Ensemble, the pianists Stephane Ginsburgh and Nicolas Horvath, the cellist Maxim Zolotarenko, the University of Tennessee at Martin Contemporary Music Group, the percussion group Duo Minimal, and the violinist Yuka Matsumoto.

A number of his compositions have been commercially recorded, including three albums on the OgreOgress, label, one consisting exclusively of works for electronic organ (including one for electronic organ and bongo drums), one with the string quartet mf and another with the piece dharmachakramudra for viola, cello and vibraphone. Most recently, Ataraxia, an album with two piano works (quartet for piano, for four), was recorded by the Belgian pianist Stephane Ginsburgh for Maria de Alvear's World Edition label in Cologne, Germany; another album devoted to his music is in process.

Toub lives in Wyncote, Pennsylvania with his family.