David Schiff (born August 30, 1945 in New York City) is an American composer, writer and conductor whose music draws on elements of jazz, rock, and klezmer styles, showing the influence of composers as diverse as Stravinsky, Mahler, Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy and Terry Riley.
He is the author of books on the music of Elliott Carter, George Gershwin and Duke Ellington.
[2] Among his teachers were James Wimer, Irwin Stahl, Roger Smalley, Ludmilla Ulehla, John Corigliano, Ursula Mamlok and Elliott Carter.
While studying with Carter at Juilliard, Schiff was awarded the League-ISCM National Composers Competition for his Elegy for String Quartet[3] and also oversaw the world premiere of his opera Gimpel the Fool (libretto by I.
[11] His books include He also has written entries on Leonard Bernstein and Elliott Carter for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.