David Alon Friedman is both a composer and a musician (piano, accordion, percussion and violin). During the 1980s and 1990s, he collaborated extensively with modern dance choreographers, spending several summers as a musician at Jacob’s Pillow and the American Dance Festival in North Carolina, including one summer as composer-in-residence. For 10 years, he played with the Balinese Gamelan ensemble Dharma Swara in New York City, and was a member of the band “You and What Army,” whose CD “Kinda Wanna” appeared in 1996 and disappeared shortly thereafter (unjustly so). Since the 1980s, he has been a member of the “Mad Coyote” ensemble under the direction of Jerome Kitzke. He has performed full evenings of his work in New York City (at La MaMa, the Public Theater, Roulette and Dance Theater Workshop), and in Europe. In recent years, he has focused on composing Jewish liturgical music, creating settings of Psalms and prayers for both soloists and choirs. His liturgical settings have been featured at the Shalshelet Festival for New Jewish Liturgical Music, and have been performed by several choirs, including Nashirah, the Jewish Chorale of Greater Philadelphia. His home congregation is West End Synagogue, a Reconstructionist Congregation, in New York City.
