Biography
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Born
1986 (age 39)
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Born In
Great Neck, Nassau County, New York, United States
Recipient of the 2011 Leonard Bernstein Award and winner of the 2010 Avery Fisher Career Grant, David
has emerged as one of the world’s most promising young artists. Since making his debut in 2005 with
The Philadelphia Orchestra and conductor Christoph Eschenbach, David has performed with leading
musicians and orchestras in the United States and Europe which include the Philharmonia Orchestra,
Staatskapelle Dresden, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Sinfonieorchester, and the Lucerne
Symphony Orchestra.
His first recording released in 2009 featured the Elgar Cello Concerto (arranged for the viola by Lionel
Tertis/David Aaron Carpenter) and the Schnittke Viola Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra and
Christoph Eschenbach. The disc received much international acclaim and accolades such as ‘Editor’s
Choice’ by Gramophone.
As a chamber musician, David has collaborated with such renowned artists as Emanuel Ax, Sarah Chang, Leonidas Kavakos, Gidon Kremer, Yo-Yo Ma, Julian Rachlin, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and
Yuja Wang. He is a regular guest artist at the Schleswig-Holstein and Verbier Music Festivals.
David was born in New York in 1986 into a family of musical siblings. He began his studies on the violin
at age six and later on the viola at the age of 11 and pursued both instruments at the pre-college divisions
of the Juilliard and Manhattan Schools of Music in New York. David continued his studies with
distinguished viola pedagogues Yuri Bashmet, Roberto Díaz, Nobuko Imai, and Pinchas Zukerman. In
2004, David was presented with the Presidential Gold Medal at a performance in Washington’s Kennedy
Center subsequent to his winning the first ever Gold Award from the National Foundation for the
Advancement of the Arts (NFAA). In 2005, David was the First Prize winner of the Greenfield Young Artists
Competition, and in 2006 he won the highly coveted First Prize at the Walter E. Naumburg Viola
Competition. In June 2007, David became the first American protégé for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé
Arts Initiative with mentor Pinchas Zukerman.
David plays on a viola made by Michele Deconet, Venice (1766) known as the “Ex-Hamma.” In addition
to his musical accomplishments, David received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and
International Relations from Princeton University in 2008.
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