David Lang (born January 8, 1957 in Los Angeles, California) is an American composer living in New York City. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Little Match Girl Passion.
fter completing his undergraduate degree at Stanford University, he went to the University of Iowa; he says, "There was a teacher in composition at the University of Iowa named Martin Jenni, and he had come to Stanford as a leave replacement to teach for a semester. And I just thought he was amazing. He knew a lot of stuff that I’d never heard of before. So when I thought about grad school, I went to Iowa. I was happy I did. It was really a kind of golden age. I really loved it.".[2] Lang went on to earn a DMA at Yale University in 1989. In addition to Jenni, his teachers have included Henri Lazarof, Lou Harrison, Richard Hervig, Jacob Druckman, Hans Werner Henze, and Martin Bresnick.

His first recognition came from the BMI Foundation's Student Composer Awards in 1980 and 1981. Together with Julia Wolfe and Michael Gordon, Lang co-founded Bang on a Can in 1987.[3]

In 2002 he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.

In 2008 he joined the Yale School of Music composition faculty.[3]

He was named Musical America's 2013 Composer of the Year.