Teaching

Though typically viewed in a negative light, David likes to look positively at how the Army moved his family around every couple of years while growing up. All the moving allowed him the opportunity to study with fantastic trumpeters across the US and even Germany! Throughout David's studies, he's encountered various methods and approaches to the trumpet, all of which he's absorbed, practiced, and dissected. Though he subscribes to the Chicago School of Brass Playing, David believes that not one approach works for everyone and his expansive education and training allow him to pull from different methods to find a solution. David is available for private instruction, coaching, and masterclasses.

Teachers

Esteban Batallán was appointed to the Bud Herseth Principal Trumpet Chair by Riccardo Muti in 2019.
Mark Ridenour has been the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Assistant Principal Trumpet since 1994. He is a renowned orchestral and solo musician.
Neal Berntsen is one of today's leading trumpet players. He performs in virtually all settings from chamber to studio and has served as Principal Trumpet for the Pittsburgh Symphony since 1997.
​​Grant Hungerford is the professor of trumpet at UCSB and the principal trumpet for the Downey Symphony, Burbank Philharmonic, and Peninsula Symphony. He is also an active freelance musician and teacher in LA.
Malcolm McNab is a Hollywood studio recording legend, having played principal on over 2,000 film scores by Goldsmith, Bernstein, Horner, Alex North, and hundreds of others, including 46 of Williams' scores. 
Jon Lewis has been dubbed the principal trumpet of Hollywood, as one of the most prolific studio musicians active today. His favorite accolade is that he played principal trumpet for the soundtracks to the Sequel Trilogy of Star Wars.
Kenneth Capshaw is an El Pasoan musician. He holds the second trumpet position with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra and throughout his career has played a significant role in music education in El Paso and Texas.
Friedhelm Biessecker is a German orchestral trumpeter who has played with several German orchestras and has held the first trumpet position with the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz since 1980.
Jason Ortiz is a trumpeter and teacher out of Columbia, South Carolina. He is a consistent substitute for the South Carolina Philharmonic and a permanent member of the Palmetto Concert Band.

Why Music?

Famous Musicians:

  • ​“Music is like a dream. One that I cannot hear.” ―  Ludwig van Beethoven

  • “I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.” ― Billy Joel

  • “Music . . . can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.” ― Leonard Bernstein

  • “Music can change the world because it can change people.” ― Bono

Famous Thinkers:

  • “Without music, life would be a mistake” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

  • “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” ― Plato

  • “If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” ― Albert Einstein

  • “Music produces a kind of pleasure which human nature cannot do without.” ― Confucius

Famous Leaders:

  • “Music is what tell us that the human race is greater than we realize.” ― Napoléon Bonaparte

  • “My heart, which is so full to overflowing, has often been solaced and refreshed by music when sick and weary.” ― Martin Luther

Famous Writers:

  • “The only truth is music.” ― Jack Kerouac

  • “Music is the shorthand of emotion.” ― Leo Tolstoy

  • “Without music, life would be a blank to me.”― Jane Austen

  • “Where words fail, music speaks.” ― Hans Christian Andersen

  • “Virtually every writer I know would rather be a musician.” ― Kurt Vonnegut

  • “Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.” ― Kahlil Gibran

  • “Music is the great uniter. An incredible force. Something that people who differ on everything and anything else can have in common.” ― Sarah Dessen