David William Batchelor graduated magna cum laude from the University of Houston (2006) where he studied with Robert S. Nelson. He was awarded a master’s degree in composition at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah (2010) where he studied with Steven Ricks, Christian Asplund, and Neil Thornock. He is nearing the end of his doctoral degree plan in composition at the University of South Carolina (2013) where he studies with John Fitz Rogers and Reginald Bain.
Batchelor has a particular interest in composing for the voice. He has written works for voice that range from unaccompanied solo to full SATB choir and accompaniment to 16 chamber singers a cappella and electronics. He stands out for his use of the voice as a virtuosic sound instrument. He often removes the convention of having text for the singers and composes with sounds only, for which case he has mastered the notation of the International Phonetic Alphabet.
In 2013, his Genesis for SATB choir and organ, commissioned by conductor Nové Deypalan, received its premier in Rome’s Saint Ignatius Cathedral by the combined choirs of California’s San Gabriel Valley. In 2008, the Laycock Center for the Creative Collaboration among the Arts commissioned him to compose a work for chamber orchestra.
He was a resident composer at the soundSCAPE Festival in Pavia, Italy. His setting of psalm two, a composition for solo voice and heavy reverberations, was performed at the start of the festival. Later, he was commissioned by the Florestan Recital Project to compose a work for baritone and voice to be premiered near the end of the festival. Aaron Engebreth, a grammy-nominated baritone, sang its first performance with Rachel Beetz, flute. As a performer, he sings baritone and has performed a number of his own compositions for voice.
In addition to composing and teaching, Batchelor acts as the first artistic director of Classical Revolution Columbia, an organization that brings live performances of classical music to coffee shops and other unusual venues. He also helped in the formation of USC’s Cica organization (Contemporary Interdisciplinary Collaborative Art) and serves on its student board of directors as director of composition activities.
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