For the past decade, Donald Reid Womack has been creating a fascinating body of chamber music utilizing both Western and Asian instruments. Breaking Heaven, Womack’s trio for cello, shakuhachi, and 21-string koto, is a great starting point for listeners eager to hear the exciting sonic result of this synthesis.
Frank J. Oteri
New Music USA New Music Box
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Womack’s Line Drive, for shakuhachi, Chinese pipa, and 21-string koto was an original, creative, and ingenious work
Akahata (Tokyo) Shimbun
Even at nearly ten minutes, A Glinting Edge of Sky sings intensely. Koto and shakuhachi play their own material at what seems like an illusion of each player’s independent pace. Yet the two strains fit each other. The score has the concentration of a haiku.
classicalCDreview.com
Review of the CD Walk Across the Surface of the Sun
In this well-structured work, with rhythmic and motivic motion and a Japanese emotional character, the continuing tension and moving sound and the gentle and quiet sections given to shakuhachi and koto are musically executed for 35 minutes, with the relation between motion and stillness skillfully handled. (On a concert featuring several of Japan’s most venerated composers) it was the most rewarding piece.
Ongaku no Tomo
Review of the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony’s Japan premiere of After.
The score has no development in the classical sense, but it keeps listener interest for nearly 12 minutes with just two instruments. Pretty impressive.
classicalCDreview.com
Review of strung out, on the CD Walk Across the Surface of the Sun
Womack’s Concerto is a powerful work, impressively crafted, that impacts listeners on a visceral level. It was striking even among familiar masterworks; among other contemporary premieres, it might have seemed extraordinary.
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Review of the Honolulu Symphony’s premiere of Violin Concerto – In questi tempi di Conflitto
Percussive cross-rhythms and syncopations drive the music along… with manic energy. It may well count as my favorite piece on the CD. It won’t let my fingers or toes keep from tapping.
classicalCDreview.com
Review of Walk Across the Surface of the Sun
The highlight of the evening was the world premiere of Donald Reid Womack’s Na Iwi o Pele (The Bones of Pele). Womack’s expressive language, drawing on techniques as diverse as Stravinsky’s syncopated percussive rhythms and Reich’s minimalist cells, is eclectic but also distinctive… a stirring, exciting work.
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
An Infinite Moment reminds me a bit of Copland pastoral — slow, telling progressions of widely-spaced chords and terse melody, all trying to burrow inside you. Womack sets up interesting contrasts between consonance and dissonance. It seems shorter than it actually is, one clue to its quality.
classicalCDreview.com
Review of the CD Walk Across the Surface of the Sun
Perhaps it was the multi-metric, volcanic, seething passion of the fast section. Or perhaps the lush beauty of the slow, melancholy tutti theme near the end. Whatever the cause, by the end of the piece, the audience was listening intently and the pianissimo close capped by a bell rang undisturbed – at least until the audience erupted into enthusiastic applause.
Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Review of the Honolulu Symphony’s premiere of On Fields of Frozen Fire
On Fields of Frozen Fire has moments of raw energy alternating with a brooding potentiality. There were several interesting passages that seemed to embody its title, and the work was met with genuine appreciation.
Honolulu Advertiser
This morceau’s a bit of le jazz hot, à la the Copland piano concerto. It’s a quick delight.
classicalCDreview.com
Review of A Little Something Extra, on the CD Walk Across the Surface of the Sun
Wonderfully mellow, and spritely (sic) in its metrical incisiveness.
Buffalo Daily News
Review of Visceral
A country that could produce a Charles Ives should… be capable of providing stimulus for a new century. Among the developing composers present here who justified such hopes and whose names deserve notice, one should include Donald Womack.
Neue Musikzeitung
Review of the 1996 June in Buffalo Festival
The third concert was the most consistently enjoyable of the entire festival. Standout works were Georgiev’s Dialogues for clarinet and cello, and Womack’s Once the Sky Unfolds for viola and piano.
American Record Guide
September/October 1996 review of Florida State University’s Eighth Biennial Festival of New Music