Bio
David was born in Boston in 1962. He wrote his first piece, Ave Maria, for his high school choir when he was a senior, but his daughter Rosannah wrote a song about macaroni and cheese when she was five. David received a Bachelor's Degree in Composition from Florida State University School of Music and a Master's Degree in Choral Conducting and Composition from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, studying composition with Roy Johnson, John Boda, Darrell Handel, and Scott Huston. After graduation, he worked as a music copyist with ink and a calligraphy pen for the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra before reluctantly giving them up for a Macintosh.
David has been a choral singer for all but the first six years of his life, and considers it his primary instrument. While in Cincinnati, he founded and directed the first of his two professional a cappella ensembles, The Village Waytes, which traveled extensively and made two commercial recordings. After moving to Minnesota in 1993, David formed Dare To Breathe, which performed, taught, and recorded together for ten years. In 2001, Dare To Breathe was awarded the prestigious McKnight Fellowship for Performing Artists. Between these two groups and a long and fruitful relationship with MUSE women’s choir in Cincinnati, David has produced a catalog of nearly two hundred vocal arrangements.
As a two-time recipient of American Composer's Forum Faith Partners Residencies, David served as composer-in-residence at five Minnesota churches: Westwood Lutheran Church, Adath Jeshurun Synagogue (Minnetonka), St. Michael's Catholic Church (Stillwater), St. Andrew's Lutheran Church (Mahtomedi), and Plymouth Congregational Church (Minneapolis), where he wrote for Philip Brunelle's celebrated church choir. From 2002-2005, David was Choir Director at First Presbyterian Church in White Bear Lake, MN, and is currently Director of Music at The Episcopal Church of the Nativity in Burnsville.
David has taught song writing workshops and coached high school choirs and small ensembles in Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. In 2002, he was selected by The Minnesota Opera to be composer-in-residence at Four Seasons A+ Elementary School in St. Paul, where he collaborated with the fourth graders of the school to create a 20-minute alien invasion opera from scratch. In 2004 and 2006 he worked with students at Valley Crossing Community School in Woodbury, MN, writing biographical songs that were performed for Nobel Peace Prize laureates Jimmy Carter and Wangari Maathai during Augsburg College's Nobel Festival.
David’s music is published through Earthsongs, Colla Voce, Yelton Rhodes, Mark Foster, Hinshaw, and Music for Percussion. He recently founded Fresh Ayre Music for the promotion of his choral works. Performances of his music are licensed through ASCAP. He lives in St. Paul and has no pets.
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