CV

Education

  • 2003-2006 MLitt (Composition), University of Oxford, St. Anne’s College
  • 1997-1998 MMus (Composition), Royal College of Music, London
  • 1996-1997 Private study of advanced fugue, Prof. Zbigniew Bujarski (Cracow)
  • 1995-1996 Diploma (Composition), Cracow Academy of Music, Poland
  • 1990-1994 DipRCM (Composition/Guitar – joint 1st), Royal College of Music

 
Awards & Scholarships: 

  • Named as one of the Observer/Courvoisier Future 500
  • University Graduate Scholarship, University of Oxford
  • Oppenheim/Downes Memorial Scholarship
  • Waterson Scholarship, University of Oxford
  • SPNM Short-listed Composer
  • Fine Arts Sinfonia Composition Prize (London)
  • John Longmire Prize for Composition, Royal College of Music
  • Jack Morrison Prize for Guitar, RCM
  • Composition Prize for Youth Orchestra, Murcia, Spain

Skills

  • Instruments/Musicianship:
    • Composition: virtuoso, prolific: 280+ works, all ensemble types
    • Orchestration/Instrumentation: expert
    • Conducting: professional
    • Sight reading: expert
    • Harmony/Fugue/Counterpoint/Theory: expert
    • Classical guitar: professional: Royal College of Music Performance Diploma
    • Electric guitar (all styles/effects & guitar types: archtop, solid, etc.): professional
    • Mandolin: professional
    • Renaissance lute: professional
  • Software:
    • DAW: Reaper: professional
    • Sample libraries: Spitfire, Kontakt, Appassionata, SINE, Berlin, Cinematic Studio +
    • Sibelius, Dorico: expert
    • MuseScore: proficient

Commissions  

  • 2023: Solo mandolin concert work: Florian Klaus Rumpf
  • 2019: Piano trio: enSEmble 26
  • 2018: Work for children’s choir and orchestra: The London Mozart Players
  • 2015: Music for Dancers: Erato Piano Trio
  • 2014: A cappella choral work (setting of Alma Redemptoris Mater): Chapelle du Roi
  • 2012: A cappella choral work (setting of O Sapienta): Chapelle du Roi
  • 2006: Ensemble works: Ensemble ISIS, Oxford
  • 2005: Film score for Compartment: First Born Films
  • 2004: Cadenza for Mozart piano concerto: Marios Papadopoulos
  • 2000: Choral work: St Joseph’s RC Church, Colwyn Bay

Worklist – 280+ works (highlights): 

  • Three symphonies (large orchestra)
  • Viola concerto
  • 160+ chamber works (duos, trios, quartets, with guitar and/or piano)
  • Two piano sonatas
  • 100+ songs (with guitar, piano, and/or mandolin, ensemble)
  • 150+ works for, or involving, guitar
  • 30+ mandolin solos
  • Tutor book Play Classical Guitar, Backbeat Books, 2000: in three editions, including Spanish

Recordings: 51 single-composer albums, EPs and singles: highlights:

  • Morning: soprano/string quartet: Grace Davidson/Tippett Quartet
  • Out of the Darkness (string orchestra) Paul Mann/Ukrainian Festival Orchestra
  • Four duos for when the world momentarily stops turning: viola/piano: Catarina Silva/Rossitza Stoycheva
  • Transfigured Life: Still Life – violin/piano: Ezgi Sarikcioglu/Rossitza Stoycheva
  • Five Preludes for guitar: David Black
  • 2x Compilation albums: various
  • Five Duos for the Curious (bassoon/guitar): Isabela Musial/David Black
  • Journey Time (hour long work: soprano/small ensemble – words & music by David Braid): Susanna MacRae/ensemble
  • David Braid: Chamber & Instrumental Music (Toccata Classics): various
  • David Braid: Songs, solos and duos (Métier): Braid Ensemble/various

Publishers:


Notable performances/broadcasts, highlights:

  • BBC Radio 3 InTune (twice)
  • BBC Radio 3 broadcasts: c. 25
  • Wigmore Hall, London
  • Purcell Room, Southbank Centre
  • King’s Place, London
  • The Brunel Museum Tunnel Shaft, London
  • Wilton’s Music Hall, London
  • V&A Museum, London

Ensembles founded/Artistic Director:

  • The Braid Ensemble
  • The Braid Group
  • The Model Citizens

 Reviews

  • Steve Reich: “Morning. Integration of voice with string quartet beautifully done – particularly first entrance. Writing for instruments is solid and sounds very good to me. Very honest stuff”

  • Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine: “The use of counterpoint in the hypnotic setting of Neruda in Morning is gripping”

  • Gavin Dixon, MusicWeb International: “David Braid wanted to avoid the more obvious lament-type work’, and instead composed a four-part fugue. This could have been as dry as dust, but not at all. Within its very short time-frame, this music with motion and direction, with linear purpose – like life itself achieves as intense a depth of expression as its companions, but by very different means.” 

  • recordsinternational.com: “These recent chamber works represent the mature style of an intensely self-critical composer who acknowledges a wide diversity of enthusiasms and influences, which have been thoroughly absorbed into a personal idiom… …Clear, eloquent counterpoint and an elegant purity of line characterize the works”

  • theclassicalreviewer.blogspot.co.uk: This setting [Morning]… is spellbindingly beautiful and is varied by the quartet’s differing textures and rhythms… Braid immediately conjures up a distinctive sound world… a lovely atmospheric dreamscape… … a lovely work, full of unusual charm and invention [Music for Dancers – piano trio]…  …I am really glad to have heard these attractive works and hope to hear more from this fascinating composer

  • Josie Dixon, Oxford Today: Sonata for Quartet makes a progression from formless sonority to a satisfyingly structural and energetic fugue… …Morning, for soprano and string quartet, makes an arresting opening, and the searing purity of Grace Davidson’s vocal line; the work exhibits a paradoxical combination of intensity and attenuation… …David avoids the demanding compositional density of much contemporary music, and has instead a more direct quality, generating atmosphere with a sparse, textural clarity