ABBA

Tuba player from Toronto, Ontario, who began playing at thirteen years of age and was a member of several groups, including the Burlington Teen Tour Band, which was a staple in parades throughout Canada and the U.S. He attended McGill University, Northwestern University, and Queen’s University, and graduated with a Doctorate in Music.

In 1973, he participated in the first-ever International Tuba Euphonium Symposium.

He and pianist Allison Gagnon performed Oscar Morawetz’s “Sonata for Tuba and Piano” at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, on 31^st March 1990.

In June 1995, he was one of 750-plus tubists who descended upon Evanston, Indiana, for an airing of Ammon Wolman’s “Right Turn Must Turn Right for Many Tubas” at the International Tuba-Euphonium Conference.

He and Richard Hornsby and Richard Raymond interpreted Alasdair MacLean’s “Trio for Clarinet, Tuba and Piano” in 1998.

On 1^st June 2000, he premiered John Cheetham’s “Sonata for Tuba and Piano” as part of the International Tuba and Euphonium Conference at the Riddell University Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan.

He returned to Evanston for a solo turn at Regenstein Recital Hall on 5^th June 2002 in a program that comprised Steve Frank’s “Variations on Barnacle Bill”, Edward Gregson’s “Alarum for Solo Tuba”, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s “Andante”, Corrado Maria Saglietti’s “Concertissimo”, Daniel Schyder’s “Sonata for Bass Trombone/Tuba”, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Concerto”.

In 2003, he became the solo tubist of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. Other groups with whom he has performed include the Amsterdam Tuba Quartet, the Holland Symphonia, the Holland Wind Players, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the NedPhO Koperkwintet, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Schoenberg Ensemble, the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

On 2^nd October 2005, he was the featured soloist in the Holland Wind Players’ recital at the Blazersfestival that included music by Jean Francaix and Felix Mendelssohn.

He and fellow tubist Perry Hoogendijk and percussionist Barry Jurjus appeared in the Sweelinckzaal at the Amsterdam Conservatory for a concert that consisted of Konrad Koselleck’s “Pocketsuite vor Tuba and Percussion”, William Kraft’s “Encounters”, William Penn’s “Capriccio for Tuba and Marimba”, Jim Self’s “Duh”, and Scott Wyatt’s “Three for One” on 27^th January 2006.

In 2006, he participated in the Ottawa Chamber Music Festival, a series of concerts that featured John Cheetham’s “Heroes” and “Sonata for Tuba”, Elizabeth Raum’s “Requiem for a Wounded Knee”, Jim Self’s “Contra-Dictions”, Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Adagio from A Limpid Stream”, and Roland Szentpali’s “Tuba Buffo, Ballade”.

He helped the Burlington Teen Tour Band celebrate its 60^th anniversary in the spring of 2007 with a concert at Hamilton Place in Hamilton, Ontario, that ranged from Dixieland to Vittorio Monti’s “Czardas”.

On 5^th April 2007, he gave a master class at McGill University’s Schulich School of Music in Clara Lichtenstein Hall and gave a recital of John Cheetham’s “Sonata”, Henry Eccles’s “Sonata”, Andy Emler’s “Tubastone No. 1”, Corrado Maria Saglietti’s “Concertissimo”, and Roland Szentpali’s “Allegro con Fuoco”.

The Schoenberg Ensemble haunted Hamer Hall at the 2008 Melbourne Festival in a pair of concerts: One shone the spotlight on John Adams’ “Chamber Symphony”, Louis Andriessen’s “Zilver”, Mauricio Kagel’s “Divertimento”, and Arnold Schoenberg “Kammersymphonie, Op. 9”; The other, with soprano Barbara Hannigan, featured Gyorgy Ligeti’s “Kammerkonzert” and “Mysteries of the Macabre”, Jan van de Putte’s “Uma So Divina Linha”, and Michael Smetanin’s “Micrographia”.

On 23^rd January 2009, the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic presented Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Pianoconcert nr. 4 in G opus 58”, with Ronald Brautigam at the keys, Christoph Willibald von Gluck’s ballet suite from Orphee et Eurydice, Wim Laman’s “Canti d’Orfeo”, and Franz Liszt’s Orpheus.

The Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra teamed up with soprano Orla Boylan and baritone Peter Coleman-Wright on 25^th April 2009 for Frederick Delius’s “Idyll”, Gustav Mahler’s “Ruckert-Lieder”, Carl Nielsen’s “Derde symfonie, opus 27” (“Sinfonia Espansiva”) and Jean Sibelius’s “De bard, opus 64”. On 22^nd May 2009, they performed Leonard Bernstein’s symphonic dances from West Side Story, George Gershwin’s ”Cuban Overture”, Charles Ives’ “Three Places in New England”, and Marijn Simons’ “Visiting the Angels, opus 25”, with trombonist Christian Lindberg.

David, Fernando Dissenha, Luiz Garcia and Wagner Polistchuk performed Oswaldo Lacerda’s “Fantasia e Rondo” at the Festival Internacional de Inverno de Campos do Jordao in Brazil on 15^th July 2009.

On 18^th August 2010, the Amsterdam Tuba Quartet, which is rounded out by Frans-Aert Burghgraef, Perry Hoogendijk and Gerd Wensink, interpreted works by Anton Bruckner, Jorge Gomez Crespo, Duke Ellington, Gustav Holst, and Jean Sibelius at the Grachtenfestival in Amsterdam.

The NedPhO Koperkwintet dropped in at the Amsterdam Sofitel Hotel the Grand for the Wallenfestival on 12^th September 2010 for a wide-ranging repertoire of music by The Beatles, William Boyce, Paquito D’Rivera, Eric Ewazen, Michael Kamen, and Astor Piazzolla.

David was one of the featured soloists, along with actor Bert Luppes, on 19^th September 2010, as the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra offered up one for the kid in all of us: George Kleinsinger’s Tubby the Tuba, Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, and Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Wasps.

On 13^th November 2010, the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic presented Pascal Dusapin’s Faustus, the Last Night, with John Hancock as Faustus, Stephen West as Mephistopheles, Jaco Huijpen as Togod, Adam Klein as Sly, and Heather Buck as an angel.

David, Frank Braafhart, Fokke van Heel, Harrie de Lange and Auke van der Merk paid tribute to the Canadian Brass at the Metrostation Weesperplein on 21^st November 2010.

In the field of musical education, he has taught at Northwestern University, the University of Missouri-Columbia, the University of New Brunswick, and the University of Prince Edward Island. His students have included Michael Parker, Ries Schellekens, and Louis Yeo Pai Tiong.

He appears on the 2010 compact disc, Vivid Sound x Hybrid Colors: Sonic Colors Original Soundtrack.

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