Born in New York City in 1956, David Fetherolf started studying the violoncello at the age of five. Having learned two clefs by the age of seven, he decided to learn the treble clef by teaching himself on both the piano in his parent's home and the organ in the chapel of the church where his grandmother worked.
As a young adult, Mr. Fetherolf enrolled in the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, Massachusetts as a non-degree student to study Violoncello. While at Longy his focus shifted from performance to composition. Eventually he moved to New York City, where he qualified for a Masters degree in Music Composition from the Purchase College Conservatory of Music in Purchase, New York.
Mr. Fetherolf's views have been enriched over the years by many teachers, including: Guido Brand, Alvin Brehm, Richard Cornell, Edgar Grana, Anthony Newman, Vladimir Padwa, and Nathan Stuch as well as close working relationships with composers such as: Chou Wen-chung, Eleanor Cory, and Ursula Mamlok.
Fetherolf's works have been played in the United States, Europe, and Central and South America. He has received awards and grants from the American Music Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Helen F. Whitaker Fund, the Mamaroneck Schools Foundation and the Chase Manhattan Bank as well as several private grants and fellowships. His works have been premiered at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, at St. James Hall, London, and have been selected to represent his country by the United States Information Agency. He has been involved with four International Festival of New Music for Orchestra programs in Olomouc, Czech Republic and received commissions from groups as diverse as The Mamaroneck Schools Foundation (USA) and the Gamavilla Quartet (CZ). Fetherolf is one of the founding members of Random Access Music, a group of composers in the New York City area who work under the aegis of the Astoria Music Society.
Mr. Fetherolf's day job, Editor/Production Manager, Premiere Works for G. Schirmer, Inc./AMP in New York City keeps him enmeshed in contemporary music. He has also lectured extensively to young people on the aesthetics and philosophies of 20th Century music and has worked closely to realize musical projects with artists as diverse as the composer Chou Wen-chung, pianist Steven Smith, and Rick Scott of Cuneiform recording artists Birdsongs of the Mesozoic.
Some of Fetherolf's larger works are available on the Vienna Modern Masters' "Music from Six Continents" series and are available directly from Vienna Modern Masters or on the web at CDeMUSIC. A new recording of chamber works for strings will be available in Spring, 2007 from Albany Records.
Some nice things folks say:
Piano Entente (A note from the performer) Merkin Hall, 8 April, 1998
Steven Smith
I have given the name Piano "Entente" to this venture because that word, borrowed from diplomacy, suggests an "understanding" or a "working relationship" and thus perfectly describes what binds the performer to the composers and their music, which through the performance medium acquires a live of its own... the explanation is quite simply that I have discovered a great deal of attractive music, and I want to play it... composers have shaken off the doldrums of either conservative or avant-garde orthodoxy and there is an interesting variety at hand. Further, many composers seem to have rediscovered how to write for the instrument, to explore its possibilities... David Fetherolf wrote the Ballade (When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd) for me after I played the premiere of his Six Humoresques at the Region III Conference of the Society of Composers, held at Penn State in 1993. He writes that the title, from the Walt Whitman poem, occurred to him after he finished writing the piece. In view of its dark, tragic mood, it was an apt choice...
New York Concert Review
David Witten
The American David Fetherolf's Ballade, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd, was a dark, brooding piece that built considerable tension, featuring Wagnerian melodic fragments and tritone-cluster trills...
... all of the composers chosen by Smith certainly understand how to write for the piano.
Research/Penn State
Natalie Rieland
... the rapturous expression on his face makes it clear why Smith leaves the composing up to Beall, Rochberg, Fetherolf, and Stravinsky.
Wiener Zeitung
New Releases of Contemporary Music
Am I imagining it, or has the amount of contemporary music appearing on CD multiplied recently? I have selected a few from among the steadily growing number being offered...
... It also pays to keep your ears attuned to interesting individual contributions on Vienna Modern Masters. Thus the Violoncello Concerto by American David Fetherolf, born in 1956, causes you to prick up your ears. It is a medley of well-known stylistic elements from Ives to the Minimalists, and right from the start it allows the soloist Jing Jiang repeated opportunities in cantileno sections to indulge in the mellow sound of her instrument (VMM3031).
El Porvenir Cultural
Une sentimiento latino y contemporáneo
La unión entre sentimiento latino y lo contemporáneo de la música se logran en la persona de Ana María Rosado, quien integra a su interpetación de los grandes autores latinoamericanos el trabajo de los nuevos compositores estadounidenses...
... Para continuar con el tema Parar la Oreja escrito especialmente para la gira por David Fetherolf, en el cual el autor contemporáneo incluye aspectos latinos, rock, e incluso maneja elementos funebres como sería unas campanadas.
More personal flattery
David is a brilliant musician. (Alvin Brehm, Bassist/Composer, USA)
This music is really very remarkable. (Giya Kancheli, Composer, Georgia/Belgium)
beautiful and brilliantly orchestrated! (John Corigliano, Composer, USA)
I can't wait to hear David's music. (Chou Wen-chung, Composer, USA)