Born in 1957 in Los Angeles, he holds degrees from Stanford University and the University of Iowa, as well as a doctorate from the Yale School of Music (1989). He has studied with Jacob Druckman, Hans Werner Henze and Martin Bresnick.
He has been honoured with the Prix de Rome, the bmw Music-Theater Prize (Munich), a Kennedy Center/Friedheim Award, and the Revson Fellowship with the New York Philharmonic. He has held grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts and the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Lang's pieces have been performed by the Santa Fé Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the bbc Singers, the American Composers Orchestra and the 'Kronos' Quartet; at Tanglewood, the bbc Proms, the Sidney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival, the 'Almeida', Holland, Berlin, Strasbourg and Huddersfield Festivals; in theatre productions in New York, San Francisco and London; in the choreography of Twyla Tharp, 'La La La Human Steps', The Nederlands Dans Theater, and the Royal Ballet. He is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York's legendary music festival, 'Bang on a Can', and Composer-in-Residence at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco.
In 1999 he received a Bessie Award for his music for choreographer Susan Marshall's The Most Dangerous Room in the House, performed live by the 'Bang On A Can All-Stars' at the 'Next Wave Festival'.

Selected works: Illumination Rounds for violin and piano (1982), While Nailing at Random for piano (1983), By Fire for mixed choir (1984), Eating Living Monkeys for orchestra (1985), Spud for chamber ensemble (1986), Are You Experienced? for narrator, solo tuba and instrumental ensemble (1987-88), Hammer Amour for piano and instrumental ensemble (1979; 1989), Judith and Holofernes, puppet opera (libretto by the composer; 1989), Orpheus Over and Under for piano duo (1989), Bonehead for orchestra (1990), International Business Machine for orchestra (1990), The Anvil Chorus for percussion (1990), Vent for flute and piano (1990), Hunk of Burnin' Love for instrumental ensemble (1991), Press Release for bass clarinet or solo bassoon (1991), Fire and Forget for string orchestra (1992), Bitter Herb for cello and orchestra (1992), Cage for piano (1992), Face So Pale for six pianos (1992), My Evil Twin for instrumental ensemble (1992), Cheating, Lying, Stealing for chamber ensemble (1993), Music for Gracious Living for narrator and string quartet (1993), Slow Movement for amplified instrumental ensemble (1993), Street for instrumental ensemble (1993), Thorn for solo flute (1993), Three Memory Pieces for piano (1992-94), Concerto on Orpheus for two pianos and orchestra (1994), Modern Painters, opera (libretto by M. Hoelterhoff, 1994), The Passing Measures for amplified orchestra (1998), Link for instrumental ensemble (with Michael Gordon; 1998), Scraping Song for percussion (1998), The Carbon Copy Building, comic book opera (with Michael Gordon and Julia Wolf, to text and cartoons by Ben Katchor; 1999), The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, opera (libretto M. Wellman; 1999), My Very Empty Mouth for chamber ensemble (1999), Sweet Air for chamber ensemble (1999), Birds of Minnesota for four percussionists, harp and piano (2000).

The Anvil Chorus. When percussionist Steve Schick asked me to write a solo piece for him I wanted to do something that showed percussion's connection to real-life activities. I didn't want to work with the pretty instruments such as vibraphone or chimes, instruments that were invented to allow percussionists to play politely with other musicians. I wanted to write a piece that would remind the listener of the glorious history of percussion; after all since time immemorial people have always banged on things as a result of their professions.
Then I remembered that I had once read a book on the history of blacksmithing, and I had become particularly interested in how medieval blacksmiths used song to help them in their work. Although small jobs could be accomplished by individual smiths, larger jobs created an interesting problem - how could several smiths hammer on a single piece of metal without getting in each other's way? Smiths solved this problem by singing songs together which would control the beat patterns of the hammers. There was a different song for each number of participating blacksmiths - obviously, a song that allowed for three hammer strokes would be confusing and even dangerous if used to coordinate four smiths.
My solo percussion piece The Anvil Chorus also uses a 'melody' to control various beat patterns. The 'melody' is played on resonant junk metals of the percussionist's choosing, and, by adding certain rules, it triggers an odd accompaniment of non-resonant junk metals, played both by hand and by foot.
David Lang