David Aaron Carpenter

The American violist David Carpenter qualified as a prodigy, appearing with major orchestras and winning prizes while he was still in his teens. His career has continued to develop in adulthood, and he has won acclaim from Germany’s Die Welt newspaper, among other outlets, as “a new star at the forefront of violists.” Carpenter was born in Great Neck, New York, on Long Island, on April 5, 1986. His family was musical, and he took up the violin at age six, using the Suzuki method and studying with Nicole DiCecco. At 11 he added the viola to his musical armament, and at 16 he decided to devote himself to that instrument primarily, although his studies continued to encompass both viola and violin. Just three years later, Carpenter appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra under conductor Christoph Eschenbach, and in 2006 he took home first prize from the Walter W. Naumburg Viola Competition. Carpenter continued to find high-profile gigs. He replaced an ailing Maxim Vengerov in 2008, playing a new composition, Benjamin Yusupov’s Viola, Tango, Rock Concerto, with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra. Meanwhile he embarked on a long series of collegiate-level music programs, including studies at the Juilliard School and Manhattan School of Music in New York, the Accademia Chigiana in Italy, the International Music Academy in Switzerland, and the Verbier Festival Academy. Among his teachers were Yuri Bashmet, Boris Belkin, Nobuko Imai, and Pinchas Zukerman, with whom he was paired in a mentor-student relationship in a new program, the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative. While undertaking these studies, Carpenter found time to earn a B.A. in Political Science and International Relations from Princeton University in 2008. He has performed at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York, and has performed the Schnittke Viola Concerto with both the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Staatskapelle Dresden. With the former he recorded the Schnittke concerto and his own transcription of the Elgar Cello Concerto for the prestigious Finnish label Ondine in 2009. His recital partners have included such luminaries as Emanuel Ax, Sol Gabetta, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, and Yuja Wang, whose stage charisma Carpenter could match. Winning an Avery Fisher Career Grant in 2010, Carpenter has continued to expand his recording career. After three more albums for Ondine, he was signed to the revived Warner Classics and released The 12 Seasons (four each by Vivaldi, Piazzolla, and New York composer Alexey Shor) in 2016. His album Motherland, featuring works by Bartók, Walton, Dvorak, and Shor, appeared in 2018. ~ James Manheim