David Felder

David Felder (born November 27, 1953) is an American composer and academic who was a SUNY Distinguished Professor at the University at Buffalo until his retirement in 2023. He was also the director of the June in Buffalo Festival and the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music and the Founding Director of the Slee Sinfonietta Professional Chamber Orchestra. Early life and education Felder was born in Cleveland, Ohio on November 27, 1953, and joined the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus as a late teenager, where he sang as a tenor . He received a Bachelor of Music in 1975 and a Master of Music in 1977, both from Miami University. During his time there he trained as a composer and theorist, and as a choral conductor, while also teaching electronic music. Felder spent the next two years in Cleveland teaching electronic music and recording at the Cleveland Institute of Music and studying composition privately with Donald Erb, while participating in contemporary music concerts in Cleveland as sound technician for the group "Reconnaisance". Felder earned a PhD in music composition at the University of California, San Diego, where he studied with Roger Reynolds, Bernard Rands, Robert Erickson, and Joji Yuasa. He taught as a part-time faculty member in electronic music, and conducted the UCSD Concert Choir. In 1982 he begin teaching full time at California State University where he taught all levels of theory and composition, co-produced the New Music Concert Series, inaugurated and funded the InterArts Festival, as well as the Long Beach Summer Composers' Institute. In 1985 he accepted a position at University at Buffalo, where he taught from 1985 through 2023, and initiated a large number of professional projects in the production of events and festivals.