Charles Griffin born February 28, 1968 Charles Griffin was born in New York. He earned his B.A. in voice and composition and M.A. in composition from Queens College, City University of New York, and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He has studied composition with Bruce Saylor, Judith Lang-Zaimont, Dominick Argento and Stephen Paulus. In 2002-03 he and fellow composer Gerald Cohen are enjoying residencies in the American Composers Forum¹s Faith Partners program, an interfaith consortium commission funded by the Wolfensohn Family Foundation. They will each compose four pieces for NYC's St. Ignatius Loyola, St. Bartholomew's Church, and Temple Emanu-el Synagogue. Other highlights in 2002 were a MATA sponsored public reading of his I then saw the multitude plainly by Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, performances at the SpoletoUSA Festival, the ACDA Western Regional Conference and the World Piano Pedagogy Conference, a residency at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, and scoring City Hall, a short film by Jeffrey Williams. In 2001 he was chosen to receive readings by the Plymouth Music Series orchestra as part of the American Composers Forum¹s Orchestral Reading Project, and the Dale Warland Singer¹s as part of their New Choral Music Commissioning. 2001 also saw performances at the Aspen Music Festival and the International Cervantino Festival in Mexico. He has received grants and awards from ASCAP, Meet the Composer, Queens Council on the Arts and New Dramatists. His works have been performed throughout the U.S. and in Cuba, Mexico, Canada and Europe by such ensembles as The Meridian String Quartet, The Amherst Sax Quartet, and The Quintet of the Americas, in such venues as Merkin and Weill Recital Halls in New York, Washington D.C.¹s Kennedy Center, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Landmark Center in St. Paul, Caruth Auditorium in Dallas. Commissions have come from the Westchester Chamber Orchestra, Ethos Percussion Group, Piedmont Choirs, Goliard Concerts, The Lark Ascending, The Lyric Arts Trio, pianists Marc Peloquin and Teresa McCollough, the Darkwood Consort and Time¹s Arrow, among others. Since 1995 Griffin has worked as a freelance copyist, orchestrator or arranger on projects for Phillips Classics, Jessye Norman, Hugh Downs, Yo Yo Ma, and President Clinton¹s Inauguration. He is a member of ASCAP, former Director of the New York Chapter of the American Composers Forum, and on the board of directors of the Long Island Composers Alliance. He is currently on the adjunct faculties of Hofstra University and Nassau Community College. In addition to extensive performances of his works in the US and abroad by the Kronos Quartet (The Singing Woods, ‘94; Turtle People, ‘95; Native American National Anthem, ‘96); the Joffrey Ballet (Moon of the Falling Leaves, ‘91), and the National Symphony Orchestra (Canyon Sunrise, ‘95), Davids has received numerous awards from organizations such as the NEA, Meet the Composer, ASCAP, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Sundance Institute. Davids holds a Bachelor degree and Master degree in composition from Northern Illinois University and Arizona State University respectively. Recently, Davids was invited to be one of six composers invited to Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute Film Lab (1998) where he created music for Sherman Alexie’s film “Indian Killer” and received shouting applause for the score, and he was featured on a segment of “CBS Sunday Morning” (1998) with Charles Osgood and Eugenia Zuckerman. Davids recent collaboration with Joe Myers has resulted in a number of new instrumental songs for an all Quartz Crystal Flute and Guitar CD called “Joe & the Blue Butterfly” (1998). Davids is currently working on the first authentically created American Indian opera -- in the entire history of opera -- called "The Trial of Standing Bear" with librettist Marcie Rendon (Anishinabe).

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