Composers, like pearls, are of three chief sorts, real, artificial, and cultured.  David Diamond is unquestionably of the first sort; his talent and his sincerity have never been doubted by his hearers, his critics, or by his composer colleagues.

- Virgil Thomson, The New York Herald Tribune

Welcome to the official David Diamond website. This site is devoted to the life and compositional genius of David Leo Diamond, who was born in Rochester, NY on July 9, 1915 and died there on June 13, 2005, just a few weeks shy of his 90th birthday.

The website contains information about Diamond's life and compositions as well as upcoming performances of his works around the world.

A list of recordings featuring the works of David Diamond is available on this site. Browse the recordings, listen to excerpts and read the reviews.

This site will be updated on a regular basis with stories about Diamond's life, news and rare photos from his personal collection. We invite you to contact us with your your stories, photos and tributes for inclusion on this website.

REVIEW: New York Repertory Orchestra's Performance of Diamond's The Enormous Room

The secret to the New York Repertory Orchestra is right there in their name. Classical music institutions build a quasi-artificial canon out of the works they repeatedly choose from history, but repertory is what any group decides to play. And under music director David Leibowitz, the NYRO shows that its priority is presenting good—and not necessarily famous—music.

That emphasis produces concerts like the fine one at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin Saturday night. This was a program of under-appreciated and obscure but superb compositions from David Diamond, Vitezslava Kaprálová, and Paul Hindemith.

The evening opened with Diamond’s narrative tone poem, The Enormous Room. Diamond is one of the group of mid-20th century American composers that produced some of the most attractive and substantial body of orchestral music of the era—and who are essentially ignored by American orchestras.

It was a rare treat merely to experience this rich, elegant, skillful work. Schoenberg called the composer “an American Bruckner,” and his music is driven by a balance between harmony and melody and with a modern earthiness and energy. The Enormous Room is American art doubled—it seeks to capture the experience of e.e. cummings’ anti-authority novel of the same title. The music doesn’t describe events but captures a complex mood that is sonically deep and dark-shaded, communicating both warmth and a kind of rueful wisdom. The playing was terrific, with precision and polish and a marvelous, forward flowing line. Leibowitz took a relaxed pace but the motion and energy were constant. The strings were both clear and luscious and there was a fine balance and blend among orchestral sections, especially the winds and horns.

George Grella - New York Classical Review Click here for the complete review.

David Diamond at 100 - Read about the David Diamond Centennial

Click here to read an article by Kile Smith of WRTI 90.1 about the David Diamond Centennial. The link also features a video performance of Diamond's most popular work, Rounds for String Orchestra with David Hattner conducting Camerata PYP of the Portland Youth Philharmonic.

Archival Audio Clips

We wanted to share with you some wonderful audio interviews with David Diamond as well as clips from some of his early works and later compositions. Click here to visit our newest page.