Dr. David Ashley White is currently the Director of the Moores School of Music at the University of Houston, where he is also professor of composition and theory. He was born on December 11, 1944 in San Antonio, Texas. Dr. White began his musical education at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas earning an Associate of Arts in 1966. He then transferred to the University of Houston in 1966 to pursue an undergraduate degree in oboe performance, which he earned in 1970; he finished a Master's degree in Composition at the University of Houston in 1974. He went on to the University of Texas at Austin and received his Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition in 1978. Dr. White has taught at the University of Houston since 1975, first as lecturer and then as instructor. He became Assistant Professor in 1978 and Associate Professor in 1983; he has been a full Professor since 1990. Dr. White was appointed Director in 1999.
David Ashley White's secular and sacred compositions are widely performed and published. Sources for his frequent commissions include Piccolo Spoleto, the Texas Chamber Orchestra, the Mirecourt Trio, the Green Lake Festival, the Concert Chorale of Houston, Del Mar College, the University of Houston, the Houston Harpsichord Society, Houston Masterworks Chorus, the Houston Chamber Choir, and a number of churches and individuals. Since 1980 he has received the ASCAP Award for music composition.
White is currently resident composer for the Houston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists (AGO). In 1991 and 1995 he was composer-in-residence at the Mississippi conference on Music and Liturgy, as he was in July 1998 at the Evergreen Church Music Conference in Colorado. White was winner of the 1993 composition contest sponsored by St. Paul United Church of Christ, Chicago ( Cantata Domino for mixed voices, brass, and organ, published by Paraclete Press). He has also won first prizes from the Episcopal diocese of Alabama, the Virginia Bandmasters Association, and the Texas Federation of Music Clubs.
David Ashley White is a prolific composer whose secular publishers are E.C. Schirmer, Southern Music Company and Shawnee Press, and his sacred music publishers include Selah, Paraclete, St. James, Abingdon, Trinitas, Hinshaw, and MorningStar. His hymns are found in a number of books, including The Hymnal 1982 (Episcopal), the recently published supplement to that book, Wonder, Love, and Praise, The United Methodist Hymnal, Japan's Hymnal for the United Church of Christ, and Great Britains' Worship Songs Ancient and Modern . A collection of his hymns, Sing My Soul: David Ashley White Hymnal, was published in 1996 by Selah Publishing Co.
From the guide to the Dr. David Ashley White Papers 1992-001., 1965-2001, (Special Collections, University of Houston Libraries)
