David Salness

About David

Violinist David Salness has toured extensively throughout the United States and abroad, attaining wide recognition as a performer and teacher. A sought after soloist and ensemble player for over twenty years, Mr. Salness has appeared in such renowned venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Center, Salle Pleyel, Teatro Colon, and Wigmore Hall. His performances are broadcast by National Public Radio, Radio France, Bavarian Radio, and the British and Canadian Broadcast Corporations. Mr. Salness' critically acclaimed recordings are found on the RCA, Telarc, and Centaur Labels. An alumnus of the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Cleveland and Curtis Institutes, Mr. Salness' teachers have included David Cerone, Jascha Brodsky, Ivan Galamian, Joseph Gingold, Karen Tuttle, and Felix Galimir. Mr. Salness has collaborated with members of the Guarneri, Juilliard, and Cleveland Quartets. He has enjoyed a long association with New York's Chautauqua Festival and has participated in the Aspen Center for Advanced Quartet Studies and in the Ravinia, Newport, Banff, and Mostly Mozart Festivals. He has appeared with such noted ensembles as the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, Orpheus, and the Brandenburg Ensemble of New York. A devoted chamber musician of acclaimed acumen and skill, Mr. Salness was for twelve years a member of the Audubon Quartet and won the Deuxieme Grand Prix as a member of Nisaika in the 1984 Evian International String Quartet Competition. Currently he is a member of the Left Bank Quartet and the historical Theater Chamber Players of Washington, D C. A guest artist with the 20th Century Consort and Smithsonian Chamber Players, Mr. Salness is also Concertmaster of the Fairfax Symphony. A committed advocate of contemporary music, Mr. Salness is privileged to have worked closely with some of the most influential composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries including Luciano Berio, Leonard Bernstein, John Cage, George Crumb, Witold Lutoslawski, Gian-Carlo Menotti, and Krystof Penderecki. Mr. Salness has studied the music and performance traditions of Schoenberg, Webern, Berg, Bartok, and Ravel under the direction of Szekely, Galamir, Lorand Fenyves, and Eugene Lehner, all of whom worked personally with the composers themselves. Mr. Salness has premiered works by many contemporary composers including Donald Erb and Peter Schickele. A prominent performer in the Washington, D.C. area, Mr. Salness appears regularly at the Kennedy Center, the National and Corcoran Galleries, the Library of Congress, the Phillips Collection, and the Smithsonian, and Hirschorn Museums. A highly effective teacher, lecturer, and clinician, Mr. Salness is Head of Chamber Music Studies and Associate Professor of Violin at the University of Maryland and a faculty member at the Meadowmount School in New York. He also teaches as a guest faculty member at Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory of Music. An accomplished and dedicated chamber music instructor, Mr. Salness has coached ensembles and individuals who have proceeded to garner top prizes at many international competitions. Mr. Salness performs on a violin built in 1687 that is a rare example of the work of the brothers Giovanni and Francesco Grancino of Milan.