Donald Reid Womack is a composer of contemporary classical music. He was born in Virginia, raised in East Tennessee and studied at Furman University and Northwestern University, receiving degrees in philosophy, music theory, and music composition. He has composed approximately 100 works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, and voice. Major works include a concerto for shakuhachi, koto and orchestra, two gayageum concertos, a haegeum concerto, a violin concerto, a viola concerto, an oratorio for chorus and chamber orchestra, and a triple concerto for shakuhachi, biwa and koto with ensemble of Japanese instruments. Womack's influences meld a broad range of sources, including post-minimalism, rock, bluegrass, and especially intercultural elements — in particular East Asian instruments. He spent a year in Tokyo, Japan studying Japanese instruments, as well as extensive time in Seoul, South Korea learning Korean music, and has composed nearly 40 works for Japanese, Korean and Chinese instruments in various combinations. His music has been described as "original, creative and ingenious", "powerful and impressively crafted" and "eclectic but also distinctive", "raw energy alternating with a brooding potentiality", "wonderfully mellow and sprightly in its metrical incisiveness", "capable of providing stimulus for a new century", and as having "the concentration of a haiku." Womack’s works have been performed throughout the U.S., as well as in many countries in Europe, Asia, Oceania, South America and Africa by such ensembles as the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Honolulu Symphony, Changwon Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Korea, KBS Traditional Korean Orchestra, Seoul National Gugak Orchestra, Busan National Gugak Orchestra, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Contemporary Music Ensemble Korea, Pro Music Nipponia, and AURA-J. Among his awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Fulbright Research Fellowship, winner of the Gyeonggi Korean Orchestra International Composition Competition, First Prize in the Sigma Alpha Iota Inter-American Music Awards, two Individual Artist Fellowships from the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, and an Excellence in Research Award from the University of Hawaii. Since 1994 Womack has resided in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he is professor of music composition and theory, and a faculty member of the Center for Japanese Studies and the Center for Korean Studies at the University of Hawaii.
