David Maddox
BIO (Download pdf version)
Awards, Education
Major Works
Film, Video, Commercials
Sound design in theatre
Audio clips

"Perseus Bayou is a triumph of atmosphere
and theatrical imagination"
The Washington Post

"David Maddox has written a score replete with
fanfares and flourishes that is most effective."
The New York Times (on Richard II)

"The show is magnificently dressed
by David Maddox."
Variety (on Nijinsky's Last Dance)

"Pure Magic."
The Washington Post (on Sing Down the Moon)

For David's work as a scientist, visit
www.sound-science.org or download pdf

Check out David's MySpace site
Also Perfume River's site.

David Maddox (Composer, Lyricist, Musician)
Composer & Lyricist David Maddox has created five award-winning musicals all with Mary Hall Surface.
(Sing Down the Moon: Appalachian Wonder Tales; Mississippi Pinocchio; Perseus Bayou; The Odyssey of Telémaca and LIFT: Icarus and Me; the former three published by Dramatic Publishing) and two dance-theatres (The Nightingale and Gandhara: East-West Passages, both commissioned by the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC).

New commissions and upcoming work includes: (1) a musical commissioned by Signature Theatre (Arlington, VA), titled Paradise, with Music, Lyrics and Book by David Maddox; (2) an untitled commissioned from Barter Theater (Abingdon, VA) for a new musical, with Music and Lyrics by David Maddox and Book by Richard Rose; (3) Perfume River: A Swamp Water Love Story (lyrics and music by David Maddox and Jon Carroll, book by David Maddox, Mary Hall Surface & Jon Carroll) and (4) a song cycle based on the poetry of San Juan de la Crux and Teresa of Avila.

In serious music David has been interested in mixing classical western instruments with non-western themes and instruments. For example, Gandhara: East-West Passageswas music for dance (commissioned by the Kennedy Center) that combined an orchestra of 19 with sitar, tablas and soprano. He is currently working on a song cycle based on the poetry of Spanish mystics San Juan de la Crux and Teresa of Avila, titled Let me die a stranger.

He has created scores and sound designs for more than 100 productions around the US, including the acclaimed Never the Sinner at the Houseman Theater in New York (Critic’s Outer Circle Award), Side Man at the Guthrie in Minneapolis, La Malinche at the Arizona Theater Company, The Beauty Queen of Leenan at the Alley Theater in Houston, and Nijinsky’s Last Dance at Signature Theatre and the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, for which he won a 1999 Helen Hayes Award.

David has received 13 Helen Hayes Award nominations -- 4 for "Best New Musical or play" -- and has produced six albums of original music, all available at iTunes and Amazon.com.

Most recently as a performer, he composed music for and appeared as the Russian accordion player in Chatauqua Theatre Company's The Cherry Orchard and as soldier/musician in Arena Stage’s A Man’s a Man. He has also appeared as Stump Etuffe in various workshop productions of his musical Perfume River. In the 1980’s he toured extensively with the Irish/Fusion bands Wicky Sears and Tuin, bands that released two albums.

He is an Artistic Associate at Signature Theatre of Arlington, VA and Theater of the First Amendment in Fairfax, VA.

Major Works
Perfume River: A Swamp Water Love Story 2006 Music & Lyrics by David Maddox and Jon Carroll; Book by David Maddox and Mary Hall Surface. A New Orleans Bayou musical about the qualities of swamp water.

Paradise (tentative title) 2007 Commissioned by Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA.
Book, Lyrics & Music by David Maddox.

LIFT: Icarus and me 2005 Commissioned by Theater of the First Amendment and the Clarice Smith Center (Uof MD). Premiered at George Mason University's Harris Theatre in January 2006 and transfered to the Clarice Smith Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Maryland in February 2006.

The Odyssey of Telémaca 2003 Commission from ChildsPlay in Tempe, AZ. Premiered at George Mason University's Concert Hall in June 2004. Musical inspired by the Odyssey. Original cast CD available.

Mississippi Pinocchio 2002 Commission from Theater of the First Amendment (with Mary Hall Surface). The Pinocchio story set in ca. 1900 Natchez, MS; 10 actors and 5-piece Dixieland Band (piano, clarinet/flute, trombone, bass, guitar/banjo). Published by Dramatic Publishing.

Perseus Bayou 2001 Commission from TFA. Musical telling (with M.H. Surface) of the Perseus myth, set in Louisiana; 10 actors and 5-piece Cajun band (accordion, fiddle, bass, guitar, piano). Original cast CD available. Published by Dramatic Publishing.

Sing Down the Moon: Appalachian Wonder Tales 2000 Commission from TFA; Musical adaptation (by M.H. Surface and Maddox) of six Appalachian folk tales; 7 actors and 4-piece band (piano, fiddle, bass, guitar/banjo double). Original cast CD available. Published by Dramatic Publishing.

Journey to Taxila 1999 Music for string quartet, English Horn, and percussion; 14 minutes. Contact David Maddox for performance rights.

The Nightingale 1997 Kennedy Center commission, score to dance theatre adaptation of Anderson's story; orchestra, Erhu, hammer dulcimer, voice, 52 minutes. Contact Mary Hall Surface for performance rights information. (Can be performed either with orchestra or CD. Original cast CD available.

Available Light 2000 Commission from Signature Theatre; score for a play with music by Heather McDonald; string quartet, boy soprano, English Horn; 55 minutes. Play available for production. Contact Heather McDonald for performance rights.

Gandhara: East West Passages 1999 Kennedy Center commission to Moving Forward Asian American Dance Company, score to a modern ballet concerning Alexander the Great in Pakistan; chamber orchestra, soprano, sitar, tablas; 45 minutes. Music available for excerpted performance.

Steak! 1995 Commissioned by Consenting Adults Theater Co. Musical comedy about cattle-rustling vegetarians, 12 actors and 4 piece country band (piano, guitar, bass, drums). Contact Christi Stewart-Brown for performance information.

Awards
Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Sound Design
1999 Nijinsky's Last Dance

4 MacArthur Award Nominations for MacArthir Award for Best New Play or Musical
2007 LIFT: Icarus and Me
2003 Mississippi Pinocchio
2002 Perseus Bayou
2001 Sing Down the Moon

8 Helen Hayes Award Nominations for Outstanding Sound Design
2000 Grimm Tales
1999 Nijinsky's Last Dance
1998 Never the Sinner
1998 Things that Break
1997 The Wonderful One-Hoss Shay
1996 Rhinoceros
1994 Porcelain
1994 Edward II

1 Helen Hayes Award Nomination for Best Musical Direction
2001 Sing Down the Moon

2 Parents' Choice Awards
2004 for The Odyssey of Telémaca
2002 for Perseus Bayou

2 Parent's Guide Awards
2002 for the cast album to Perseus Bayou
2001 for the cast album to Sing Down the Moon

Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Award
2001 for the cast album to Sing Down the Moon

2 Children's Music Web Awards
2002 2002 for Perseus Bayou
2001 for the cast album to Sing Down the Moon

Education
B.S. Duke University (1980)
Ph.D. Cornell University (1987) (in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology...no kidding!)

Recent and Selected Composition/Sound Design in Theater
Production             Theatre                                             	           Director	

Major Barbara
The Cherry Orchard
Richard III
Yemaya's Belly
Richard II
A Man's a Man
Nijinsky's Last Dance
King John
Nijinsky's Last Dance
Christmas Carol Rag
What the Butler Saw
Side Man
The Great Quillow
Available Light
Grimm Tales
Beauty Queen
Nijinky's Last Dance
Kiss of the Spider Wmn
King Lear
Never the Sinner
La Malinche
The Snow Queen
Poor Superman
Her Aching Heart
Otabenga
The Doctor's Dilemma

The Shakespeare Company of Washington, DC
Chautauqua Theatre Company, NY
The Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, Madison, NJ
Signature Theatre, Arlignton, VA
The Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, Madison, NJ
Arena Stage, Washington, DC
The Kennedy Center, Washington, DC
The Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, Madison, NJ
Berkshire Theatre Festival, Stockbridge, MA
Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA
Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA
Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis, MN
The Kennedy Center, Washington, DC
Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA
Theater of the First Amendment, Fairfax, VA
Alley Theatre, Houston, TX
Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA
Jomandi Theatre, Atlanta, GA
The NJ Shakespeare Fest., Madison, NJ
John Housman Theatre, New York, NY
Arizona Theatre Company, Tuscon, AZ
The Kennedy Center, Washington, DC
Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA
Consenting Adults, Boston, MA
Signature Theatre, Arlington, VA
The Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, DC

Recent TV, video & museums

• Numerous PSAs and productions for several non-profit NGOs.
• Museum installtions, including National Museum of the Civil War and the Smithsonian
• Title music for "Superpower" news-talk show.
• Title music "I'm flyng" for ITV (Education Cable)
• The independent film Through the Window
• Films & CD-ROMs for Scholastic, Inc.
• Music for "Animations in the Schools", Washington, DC
• Over thirty PSAs and short films for the Nature Conservancy.
• Series of commerials for the Washington City Paper and Chicago City Paper.