Composer / electric guitarist David Laganella was born in 1974 in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He composes music that contrasts transparency and mass in a very resonant and purely chromatic harmonic language. Laganella's music has been performed by many leading ensembles including The American Composers Orchestra "Orchestra Underground," The Da Capo Chamber Players, The Haddonfield Symphony (winner of their annual composer competition), Flexible Music, Electric Kompany, the Serafin String Quartet and by new music artists like Marilyn Nonken, pianist and guitarist Kevin Gallagher. His music has been featured at diverse venues, from Tonic & Galapagos to Carnegie Hall and has been featured at John Zorn's New Rock Complexity Festival, the Philadelphia Fringe Festival and with the Bergslagen Chamber Symphony Festival (Sweden) where he served as the Composer in Residence.

Laganella has received honors from numerous organizations including ASCAP, Meet the Composer Fund, The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, The Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, The Society of Composers, and The American Composers Forum. He holds degrees in music composition from New York University and the University of Pennsylvania. Laganella also holds a Performance Certificate in electric guitar from Berklee College of Music. He is the author of the ground breaking book, The Composers Guide to the Electric Guitar (available from Mel Bay Publications), which is a manual addressing all performance practices and notational issues for the instrument.

David Laganella is the Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Now Annual Concert Series in Philadelphia and is Assistant Professor of Music at Wesley College.