David Gresham

Biography

Clarinetist Dr. David Gresham, professor of clarinet at Illinois State University, continues to be very active as a performer, having appeared as a soloist and chamber musician over 35 countries and all across the United States.
Recent concerto performances include performances at the Red Note New Music Festival of Roger Zare’s Bennu’s Fire for clarinet and wind ensemble (February 2020), and the world premiere of Sydney Hodkinson’sEmbers: an Incanation for clarinet and orchestra (February 2019). He gave the United States or New York premieres of several other concerti as well, including works by David Rakowski, Osvaldo Golijov, and Yevhen Stankovich. He made the premiere recording of David Maslanka’s Desert Roads for clarinet and band, released by Albany Records, and presented Desert Roads at the 2009 International ClarinetFest in Porto, Portugal. He recorded Mozart’s clarinet concerto with the Kiev Camerata in Kiev, Ukraine, for the Troppo Note/Cambria recording label, and has performed many of the other standard concerti with various orchestras.
Dr. Gresham frequently performs solo recitals at home and abroad, including at the Shanghai Symphony Recital Hall in Shanghai, China, in October of 2019, and at the 2018 International ClarinetFest in Ostend, Belgium. He has given recital tours of Japan, Chile and Argentina, and the United States, in addition to presenting five recitals at Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Auditorium in New York City.
From 1992 to 2009 he performed with the New York based new music group, Continuum, presenting a yearly series in New York City, touring throughout North and South America, Eastern and Western Europe, and Central Asia, and recording music of Virko Baley, Valentin Bibik, Tania León, and Leonid Hrabovsky. Dr. Gresham’s contemporary music duo Intersecting Lines, with pianist John Orfe, performs at new music festivals, composer conferences, and universities, including the Society of Composers National Conference, the Manchester New Music Festival, the Red Note New Music Festival, the University of Iowa Center for New Music, among others. Several composers have written works for Dr. Gresham, including Carl Schimmel, David Maslanka, John Orfe, Dick Goodwin, and Paul Harvey.
Locally, Dr. Gresham performs with the Heartland Festival Orchestra, the Peoria Symphony Orchestra, the Illinois State University faculty woodwind quintet, Sonneries. Dr. Gresham holds the Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music, and the Doctoral degree from The Juilliard School.