David Colson is an American educator, administrator, percussionist, conductor and composer of classical music. He is Director of the Western Michigan University (WMU) Irving S. Gilmore School of Music and Professor of Music where he has taught composition, music theory and leads the new music ensemble, Birds on a Wire. He served as Director of the School of Music from 2007 to 2014 and Director of the Gwen Frostic School of Art at WMU from 2017 to 2021. He came to WMU from California State University–Chico, where he taught composition and music theory, chaired the Department of Music and was the David W. and Helen E.F. Lantis University Professor, the university's first endowed professorship.

Born in Estherville, Iowa (1957), Colson was raised in Iowa, Colorado, South Dakota, and Michigan. He started piano lessons at age seven and percussion lessons at age ten. He began learning about percussion, conducting and composition from his late father, John F. Colson, an accomplished musician and educator. Growing up, he was immersed in traditional and modern classical music, music theatre, popular and jazz music, and studied percussion with Gene Pollart. He graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy (IAA) where is studied composition and was principal percussionist and concerto soloist with the IAA Orchestra.

Colson received the Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Michigan where he studied percussion with Charles Owen and composition with Curtis Curtis-Smith, William Bolcom, William Albright and George Balch Wilson, and received the Halik Composition Award and Earl V. Moore Award; the Master of Arts degree from the University of Iowa where he studied composition with William Hibbard, percussion with Thomas L. Davis, and received the University's Philip Greeley Clapp Composition Award; and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition from Rice University where he studied with Paul Cooper and Ellsworth Milburn, and was awarded the Sallie Shepherd Perkins Prize for "highest achievement in music."

Compositions by Colson have been performed in Europe, Russia and the United States. His works are recorded on PARMA Recordings, Centaur, Summit Records, MMC Recordings Ltd. and Red Mark, and are published by Avera Music Press and McCoy’s Horn Library. Colson's recent commissions and performances include Dionysian Mysteries for the Capitol Quartet, premiered at the 2019 International Saxophone Symposium; RISE, a micro concerto written for pianist Lori Sims and the percussion quartet, Clocks in Motion Percussion; Ghost Music for solo marimbist Matthew Coley; Transcendental Preludes performed by pianist Lori Sims at the 2016 Gilmore International Keyboard Festival; The Better Angels of Our Nature commissioned for the Western Brass Quintet’s fiftieth anniversary; String Trio No.1: Zazen composed for the Concordia String Trio; and Cat Tales, for soprano saxophone, alto saxophone and piano. 

Colson has performed extensively as a conductor. From 1994 to 2000 he was music director and conductor of the Chico Symphony Orchestra where he led orchestral, oratorio and operatic performances. He was resident conductor for university orchestras at Rice University, directing performance of works by graduate student composers; performances by concerto competition winners; and an annual youth concert. He was music director for the Campanile Orchestra at Rice. He has also been a conductor for The Colorado College Summer Music Festival in addition to being a guest conductor for numerous orchestras in Texas, northern California and Oregon. He conducted a recording for Bridge Records of Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children, which was nominated for a 2005 Grammy® Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance.

As a percussionist, Colson has been a concerto soloist, and a chamber music and orchestral musician. He was a member of the Toledo Symphony Orchestra and the Northwood Orchestra, and has performed with many other professional orchestras including the Houston Symphony, the Houston Ballet, the American Ballet Theatre, and the Sacramento Symphony orchestras. Along with the piano duo Quattro Mani he recorded George Crumb's Makrokosmos III: Music for a Summer Evening and Poul Ruder's De Profundis for Bridge Records. Colson also recorded Crumb's complete song cycle Madrigals (Books I–IV) with soprano Tony Arnold and Idyll for the Misbegotten with flutist Rachel Rudich, both for Bridge Records. In May 2007, Bridge Records released a CD including Bartók's Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra, and Milhaud's Second Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion with Colson as a featured percussionist. Colson's performances have also been recorded on New World Records, Summit Records, MMC Recordings Ltd, and Innova.

Short Biography

David Colson (b. 1957) is an American musician who has had an active career as a composer, percussionist, conductor, teacher and administrator.

Original compositions by Colson have been performed in Europe, Russia and the United States. His works are recorded on Centaur, Summit, MMC Recordings Ltd. and Red Mark, and are published by Avera Music Press and McCoy’s Horn Library. Colson is a fellow of the MacDowell Colony and was invited for many summers as a composer to The Colorado College New Music Symposium. Colson's compositions include Transcendental Preludes performed by pianist Lori Sims at the 2016 Gilmore International Keyboard Festival; Ghost Music for marimbist Matthew Coley; How We Change composed for the Western Brass Quintet; and String Trio No.1: Zazen composed for the Concordia String Trio; His most recent commissions were Dionysian Mysteries for the Capitol Quartet and RISE, a Micro Concerto for the percussion quartet, Clocks in Motion.

David Colson is Director of the Irving S. Gilmore School of Music at Western Michigan University (WMU). He is also Professor of Music at WMU where he has taught composition, theory, and led the new music ensemble, “Birds on a Wire”. Colson served as Director of the Gwen Frostic School of Art Music from 2017-2021 and previously, Director of the School of Music from 2007 to 2014. He came to WMU from California State University–Chico, where he taught composition and music theory, chaired the Department of Music and was the David W. and Helen E.F. Lantis University Professor, the university's first endowed professorship.