David Aaron Carpenter

David Aaron Carpenter Biography

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.