In September of 1995, David joined the faculty of the Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University as an Adjunct Associate Professor of Dulcimer. Under his guidance a dulcimer program developed and has grown to include over 45 community and university students. Steve Seifert joined David as an assistant instructor in the fall of 1997.
David's Blair students are both amateur and professional musicians including Cyndi Lauper who has long used the mountain dulcimer in her songwriting and performing. His youngest student is an amazing 7 year old who is pictured here.
David's influence at Blair extends beyond his teaching. A 1996 collaboration with Conni Elisor produced "Blackberry Winter," a concerto for acoustic dulcimer, electric dulcimer, and music box. This three-movement piece combines traditional music and sound with the fullness of a chamber orchestra and has been performed and recorded with the Nashville Chamber Orchestra.
In the summer of 1997, David taught in the Vanderbilt Elderhostel program and had 41 Elderhostel students playing the dulcimer and learning about its history. A Master Class in mountain dulcimer brought 14 students from 8 states to Blair for a week during the summer of 1996. He has also performed with Blair faculty members Butch Baldasarri and Crystal Plohman.
As part of the Blair Concert Series for 1995-96, David celebrated Tennessee's Bicentennial with selections from Tennessee's rich musical history. Historic delcimores, including a Tennessee music box, brought sounds to the Blair concert hall which had not been heard there before.
Of his appointment, David says, "The Appalachian dulcimer to me is the most musical of all instruments. Its harmonious drones have been part of mountain music for hundreds of years and evoke perfectly the lonesomeness of the frontier and the liveliness of its social gatherings. Its lyrical quality and infectious rhythm have brought it into the late twentieth century with ever increasing popularity, and my mission for over twenty years has been to perform and teach for anyone with open ears and eager hands. The dulcimer has never needed validation as a serious musical instrument by anyone who has heard it played well. I applaud Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music for my appointment as Adjunct Professor of Dulcimer to increase the awareness of my instrument among Blair's far reaching educational family. I am honored and look forward to bringing the heartfelt enthusiasm of dulcimer players past, present and future into the American orchestra. Thank you for the opportunity."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
