Biography
David Homan was born in Gainesville, Florida in 1979. He started acting at the age of two, performing the role of “infant who believed in Galileo” in Brecht’s Galileo Galilee. Fortunately he knew the word “Yes,” so was able to get past the stumbling block many child actors have in learning their lines. After terrible twos involving multiple pots and wooden spoons, his family retired their cooking ware, eating out for two years until David was old enough to sit up at the piano and start to play. Everything seemed fine until age twelve when, despite being able to learn by ear, David got tired of playing the same classical music every kid learns and quit the piano. Two months later, after Nirvana had released “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and the Red Hot Chili Peppers “Under the Bridge” in piano version form, David jumped back into piano with a passion, learning Pop and Jazz tunes, and very soon started to improvise his own pieces.Initially, each piece had to deal with a crush on a girl that David did not have the courage to talk to. Now that he has learned that courage, each piece has to do with those situations (just ask his friends). At Bard College David was forced to take dance/choreography classes as part of his acting training, and quickly realized that his passion lay in the collaborative arts. Though many pieces from this period relate to women, David soon learned that the skills he developed in highschool, scoring theatre similar to that of a live film score (and now adapting this for dance as well), along with his acting training, provided him with the instincts to write music based on particular self-generated emotions. This has helped him relate to the harder emotions in life that he might not have directly experienced.
After an MA at NYU in Music Composition, he began taking his own experience, often in the form of poetry or stream of conscious narrative, and interweaving the music and elements of his personal life into works of much greater depth according to those who know his music and cry during his works. Though still a mystery to David, often his music will invoke drastic life changes in the listener, as if his music gave them the opportunity to sort out their feelings and realize that they’ve always wanted to be a mascot for the Timberwolves, a stripper for world peace, or an Alaskan King Crab Fisherman.
Often David’s music has the opposite effect, calming people so much they fall asleep (David uses his work Einstein’s Dreams to take power naps quite often). Yet in every piece of music is a personal joke, such as in his work “Tied to Another” which is about falling in love with a married woman (for those with morals--the unattainable). A brief piano phrase at the end suggests the song “You’re gonna make it after all,” revealing the composer’s true feelings, which is that even in the hardest of circumstances with love, you always survive when you can smile again. This fact, known to Mrs. Pauline Kim when she premiered the violin piece with David at Weill Hall in May 2004, caused a slight smirk to occur in the performance. Unfortunately no photos have been released from this event, but you can see Mrs. Kim’s smirk whenever David tells her about another adventure in dating.
David’s mission is to find all other creative artists who create with clear intent, and are accessible for audiences. By taking more responsibility for the audiences emotional response to a work, especially in explaining where one is coming from, David believes that audiences will regain their trust and start to realize the live performance experience is essential to our growth as human beings. This is simply because in live performance one can choose to interrupt at any point, but by not doing so, open oneself up to a wealth of personal feelings.
All of life is about understanding, and about laughter. Without sushi, animated sitcoms, video games, running, swimming, Oban Whisky, and the game Balderdash, David would take the world too seriously. For any “Wall of Fame” Balderdash answers, try to get invited to one of his dinner parties.
Thanks for reading this far (or scrolling down all the way on your own). Here's the Third Movement from Romeo and Juliet in Mantua.