David Rubenstein

David Rubenstein has composed over 90 pieces for all sizes of ensembles, ranging from duets, trios, up to concert bands and orchestras. In 2003, his clarinet quintet The Pripet Marshes won a Marmour Foundation prize through the Music Department of Stanford University. Besides being performed in concerts, his compositions have been used for theater, film, multi-media, web page, and computer animation productions. Many of his compositions can be found at www.wonderful-music.com.

Much of David Rubenstein's music is reminiscent of classical tonal music written in the first half of the twentieth century. His Cold Starry Night is an orchestral tone poem in an impressionistic style. His compositions Jovial Pursuit and Rebirth have a jazzy feeling, not unlike Gershwin's instrumental music. His film score Canyons and Casinos combines orchestral music and big-band jazz. He composed a film score to The Battle of Chantilly, which includes big orchestral arrangements and cues for banjo and fiddle. He wrote an orchestral piece September in High Country to accompany a travel video. His orchestral pieces Thank You for Not Laughing, March of the Bureaucrats and Troublemaker, his piano quintet Scalawag Takes a Catnap, and songs The Power of Music and The Elusive Muse are filled with tongue-in-cheek satire. His four-movement composition Sea of Tranquility won the 1998 Song of the Year award from the Electronic Music Forum.

Dr. Rubenstein is an active member of the Friday Morning Music Club and the Composers' Society of Montgomery County. He received a B.S. in physics and astronomy in 1975 from University of Maryland, and a Ph.D. in astro-geophysics in 1979 from University of Colorado. He presently works as a research oceanographer, and lives in Reston, Virginia.