David Goza is a sometime composer, sometime conductor, avid lecturer, and jack-of-all-musical-trades generally. As an oboist/English hornist, he has held positions with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Opera Memphis, the Charlottesville/Albemarle Orchestra, the Ash Lawn Opera, the Albemarle Chamber Players, the Springfield Symphony Orchestra (Missouri), and the North Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.
As a conductor, he has led the Ozark Festival Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of the Ozarks, the Springfield/Drury Community Orchestra, and the orchestral programs of Drury University and the University of Arkansas. He is currently co-director of Avant-Garden, OU’s contemporary chamber music program.
Dr. Goza’s chief extracurricular interests include geology and paleontology, as attested by countless hours of both directed and independent field work and a large enough accumulation of the Earth’s lithosphere in his house and garage to guarantee that he will never again be able to move.
He holds the degrees BA in music (the University of the Ozarks, 1975), MM in oboe performance (University of Memphis, 1979), MM in composition (University of Arkansas, 1988), and DMA in orchestral conducting (UMKC, 2000).
He lives with three cats: Loki (a large male grey tabby), Poly (his much smaller litter mate, named for her polydactyl condition), and Phoebe (his beautiful black calico).