Composers, like pearls, are of three chief sorts, real, artificial, and cultured.  David Diamond is unquestionably of the first sort; his talent and his sincerity have never been doubted by his hearers, his critics, or by his composer colleagues.

- Virgil Thomson, The New York Herald Tribune

Welcome to the official David Diamond website. This site is devoted to the life and compositional genius of David Leo Diamond, who was born in Rochester, NY on July 9, 1915 and died there on June 13, 2005, just a few weeks shy of his 90th birthday.

The website contains information about Diamond's life and compositions as well as upcoming performances of his works around the world.

A list of recordings featuring the works of David Diamond is available on this site. Browse the recordings, listen to excerpts and read the reviews.

This site will be updated on a regular basis with stories about Diamond's life, news and rare photos from his personal collection. We invite you to contact us with your your stories, photos and tributes for inclusion on this website.

David Diamond Features Prominently in New Biography of Carson McCullers

Mary V. Dearborn has written the first major biography in more than twenty years of one of America’s greatest writers, based on newly available letters and journals. Carson McCullers - A Life explores her relationship with David Diamond and his relationship with her and her husband Reeves McCullersin great detail.

"Although Carson McCullers camouflaged her love for women in her fiction, gay and lesbian themes are inarguably present in her work. The loneliness that her characters face takes on allegorical intensity, and it is even more potent due to her own sexual confusion and alienation. Married twice to the same man and falling in love repeatedly with both women and men, McCullers wrestled with bisexuality throughout her personal and literary life.

Her deepest attachments were to her husband Reeves McCullers; David Diamond, a musician-composer in love with both McCullers and her husband; and Anne-marie Clarac-Schwarzenbach, a Swiss writer. All three of these love interests required that McCullers deal with complicated and ultimately destructive triangles. Given that fact, it is no surprise that she created fictional worlds peopled with characters engaged in three-way relationships. In her novels, Mick (The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter), Frankie (The Member of the Wedding), Miss Amelia (The Ballad of the Sad Cafe) and Maj. Weldon Penderton (Reflections in a Golden Eye) also reflect the author's sexual ambivalence and inability to fit into the prescribed social structures of the South.

From The “We of Me” Carson McCullers as a Lesbian Artist by Jan Whitt PhD published in the Journal of Homosexuality, 37(1), 127–139

David Diamond at 100 - Read about the David Diamond Centennial

Click here to read an article by Kile Smith of WRTI 90.1 about the David Diamond Centennial. The link also features a video performance of Diamond's most popular work, Rounds for String Orchestra with David Hattner conducting Camerata PYP of the Portland Youth Philharmonic.

Archival Audio Clips

We wanted to share with you some wonderful audio interviews with David Diamond as well as clips from some of his early works and later compositions. Click here to visit our newest page.