Donald Reid Womack is the composer of more than 100 works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, chorus and voice, including more than 60 works for Korean, Japanese and Chinese instruments. His music has been performed and broadcast extensively throughout North America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, Africa and South America, and is recorded on more than a dozen releases on the Albany, Equilibrium, Akdang Eban, Synnara and other labels.
His major works include a violin concerto, a viola concerto, a double concerto for shakuhachi, koto and orchestra, two gayageum concertos, a haegeum concerto, a geomungo concerto, a triple concerto for shakuhachi, biwa and koto with ensemble of Japanese instruments, an oratorio for chorus and chamber orchestra, and several orchestral works.
Ensembles performing his music include the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Utah Symphony, Changwon Philharmonic, Russia Ulan Ude Symphony, National Orchestra of Korea, National Gugak Center Contemporary Orchestra, Seoul Metropolitan Traditional Orchestra, KBS Traditional Orchestra, Busan National Gugak Center Orchestra, Gyeonggi Sinawi Orchestra, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, AsianArt Ensemble (Berlin), and Salzburg Mozarteum String Quartet, among many others, at venues such as Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Seoul Arts Center, KBS Hall and the National Theater of Korea in Seoul, the Royal Theatre of Hong Kong, Steiner Theatre in London, Carnegie Hall and Merkin Hall in New York. A longtime collaboration with the Hawaii (formerly Honolulu) Symphony has produced six commissions, including three large-scale works.
His work with East Asian instruments has placed him at the vanguard of intercultural composition, and has enabled him to make a significant contribution to the body of new literature for Asian instruments. Regarded as one of the leading composers for Korean instruments in particular, many of his works have become standard repertoire, and his article on composing for Korean instruments is published by the National Gugak Center, the foremost authority on Korean music.
Womack is a 2020 Guggenheim Fellow, as well as the recipient of two Fulbright Fellowships. He spent a year in Japan in 2007-08 with the support of a Fulbright Research Fellowship, where he served as guest composer-in-residence with the Tokyo-based Japanese instrumental ensemble AURA-J. A second Fulbright took him to Korea for a year in 2021-22, where he was a visiting faculty member at Seoul National University. In addition, he has lectured extensively on his work at universities and institutions throughout the U.S., Korea, Japan and Taiwan.
Other organizations that have honored his work include ASCAP, Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, the Tongyeong International Music Festival, the Hokuto International Music Festival, Mexico’s Festival de Música de Morelia, the International Shakuhachi Festival in Prague, the National University of Colombia, Seoul National University, the National Gugak Center, the Gyeonggi Arts Center, and many others.
The subject of critical acclaim, his music has been described as “moments of raw energy alternating with a brooding potentiality” by the Honolulu Advertiser, and his work has been hailed as “original, creative, and ingenious” by the Shimbun Akahata (Tokyo), “wonderfully mellow” by the Buffalo (NY) Daily News, and “distinctive, stirring, and exciting” by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, which also described his Violin Concerto as “a powerful work, impressively crafted, that impacts listeners on a visceral level.”
A faculty member at the University of Hawaii since 1994, Womack is chair of the music department and professor of composition and theory. He also serves as a faculty member of both the Center for Japanese Studies and Center for Korean Studies.