David Huang Mailman (b. 2002) is a composer, researcher, and teacher working at the intersection of historiography and artistic expression. Dedicated to challenging conventional understandings of the past, their music depicts overlooked historical perspectives with a colorful, populist compositional language. He emphasizes approaching stories with humility, collaborators with humanity, and everything else in life with humor.
David is passionate about engaging students of all backgrounds through providing high-quality instruction responsive to community needs. Highlights of their educational work include writing children’s opera for kindergarteners, and developing a pilot program partnering collegiate composers with school instrumental music programs in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He instructs a young people’s choir in Kansas City, Missouri, and teaches a private music composition studio.
As a researcher, David analyzes the threads of political revisionism and cultural appropriation that run throughout mid- and late-twentieth century Chinese musical composition. His paper on the Yellow River Piano Concerto’s (re)orchestration won the 2024 Rey M. Longyear Prize. Their research extends to introducing high-quality editions of Chinese classical music transcribed and arranged for Western performers.
David’s compositional accolades include awards from the National Association for Music Education; and finalist recognition for “The President’s Own” Marine Band Call for Scores, two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, and three American Prizes. Their works have been performed by C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, the Choral Arts Initiative, the Eugene Difficult Music Ensemble, TEMPO, the PSU Symphonic Wind Ensemble, the FSU Wind Orchestra, and the Piedmont Wind Symphony among others.
David is a doctoral student in music composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City studying under CHEN Yi, ZHOU Long, Ben Morris, and Paul Rudy. He holds degrees from Vanderbilt University (BA) and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (MM), and was a student of Stan Link, Michael Slayton and Lawrence Dillon.