David Gale

David C. Gale: Violinist

David Gale was born in December 1986. He began studying the violin at the age of nine under the tutelage of Bonnie Aher. From 2001-2005 David was enrolled at the Prestigious Manhattan School of Music Preparatory Division, where he was a recipient of the Hansoree Scholarship. In May 2009, David graduated from the prestigious Manhattan School of Music with a degree in violin performance, while studying under Professor Lucie Robert.

In 2004, David was the Grand Prize Winner of the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra’s Fifth Annual Music Performance Competition, which resulted in a performance with the orchestra, and also took 2nd in the Danbury Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artists Competition in November that same year. In June 2006, David was a finalist and received the audience prize in the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion Young Artists Competition held in Houston, Texas. In September 2006, David was a participant in the 10th International Violin Competition in honor of Karol Lipinski and Henryk Wieniawski held in Lublin, Poland. In June 2008 David was declared, unanimously, the winner of the 2008 Deming Family Scholarship hosted by the Danbury Music Centre.

David has given solo performances/recitals in Lucca, Castelnuovo di Garfagnana, Marcaria, and Casalmaggiore, Italy, Lublin, Poland and in the West Indies on the Caribbean Island of St.Maarten-St. Martin. He has appeared as guest soloist with the Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra, Cheshire Symphony Orchestra, Danbury Community Orchestra, Casalmaggiore Festival Orchestra (Italy) and Summit Festival Orchestra. David has been featured by Culin Arts presents Classic Kids Concert Series in Bryant Park, New York City. David has appeared numerous times in recital throughout Connecticut, New York, New Jersey and Houston, Texas. A few of David's recitals have been featured on Connecticut Television. He recently performed at New York City's Steinway Hall, as well as performing Max Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 2 with the Cheshire Symphony Orchestra. David has received great praise from reporters and the press for his “dazzling virtuosity” “electrifying stage presence” akin to a “Young Mozart.”

David has participated in music festivals in New York, Texas, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria. He has participated in masterclasses, as well as private lessons, with world famous violinist/pedagogues Aaron Rosand and Zakhar Bron (teacher of Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin). He has also worked with cellist Raphael Wallfisch, violist Roger Chase and pianist Akira Eguchi.

David is currently a student of the world famous violinist and renowned pedagogue Maestro Aaron Rosand.

------------------------------

Youtube page:
http://www.youtube.com/user/davidcgale?feature=mhee

Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Gale-violinist/161155983979107?ref=ts

------------------------------

Gale celebrates violin heroes
Gilbert Mott, Contributing Writer
Published: 10:10 p.m., Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Danbury: News-Times

In putting programs together, violinist David Gale looks back to the time of the virtuoso/composer, figures like Paganini, Chopin and Liszt, the musical heroes of their day, who made audiences swoon performing the pieces they had written.
His recital Saturday at the Danbury Music Centre featured works by three violinists and composers who were world famous in their time and who Gale wants to make sure we don't forget. His impassioned playing made his case well.
Gale grew up in this area and did some of his earliest music making at the Danbury Music Centre. This benefit performance acknowledged the center's important role in his development and in the community's musical life.
Only 23, the violinist has a strongly developed musical personality and a relaxed stage manner. His remarks before each piece offered historical context and stressed what each composer meant to him.
The traditional recital format tends to separate performers on the stage from listeners in the hall. The intimate Anderson Recital Hall encourages players to engage the audience, and Gale did it well.
He started in the 18th century with Giuseppe Tartini's Sonata in G minor, known as the "Devil's Trill." Tartini was a great violinist, teacher and theorist in his day.
The story goes that the devil came to him in a dream and played an amazingly virtuosic piece on his fiddle. When Tartini awoke he tried to write it down as best he could.
The great 20th century violinist Fritz Kreisler arranged it and wrote a cadenza, and it was that version Gale played. With a rich tone and expressive vibrato, he took a deliberate approach to the opening movement, with delicate ends of phrases.
The second movement had a marked rhythmic bite, and the finale gathered steam and built tension into a rhapsodic, improvisatory-sounding reading of the cadenza. Pianist Evan Solomon provided solid underpinning.
The 19th century Spaniard Pablo de Sarasate came next. Gale talked about the importance of Spain, especially Spanish gypsy music, in his works, and drew an amusing parallel between Sarasate's music and his dalliances with the opposite sex.
He played the "Habanera" Op. 26 No. 8, "Romanza Andaluza" Op. 22 No. 1, and "Jota Navarra" Op. 22 No. 4 with rhythmic verve, sure intonation and great panache.
The start-stop bounciness, leaps between high and low registers, and singing, sighing tone of the "Jota" were especially memorable. Gale said he finds the essence of the violin in pieces like these, and one could hear that in his playing.
The 19th century Polish composer Henryk Wieniawski's Second Concerto ended the program. Here Solomon got his chance to shine, standing in for the full orchestra in the piano transcription, and he delivered a big, colorful sound to match Gale's playing.
The piece was full of both fire and song, and the dashing tempo of the finale never lost clarity or expressiveness.

------------------------------

Danbury, Connecticut
November 9, 2007
Violinist's recital both dazzling, thoughtful
By Gilbert Mott SPECIAL TO THE NEWS TIMES

The young violinist David Gale's recital at the Danbury Music Centre on Saturday was full of dazzling display, with many deeply musical moments as well.
A student at the Manhattan School of Music and the Curtis Institute, Gale is a former Ridgefield Symphony Orchestra Competition winner and has performed throughout this country and abroad. His youthful fire and seasoned interpretive skills made for a pleasing evening of music for violin and piano, with Evan Solomon an able accompanist.
Jean Marie Leclair's Sonata Op. 9, No. 3 led off. Leclair was a leading French Baroque composer, a contemporary of Bach who is especially remembered for his violin music. French courtliness and Italian expressivity combine attractively in his work. Gale showed off a full rich tone from the start, with playing that turned delicate when called for and precise intonation.
The second movement was sprightly and nimble, with accents punched emphatically. One admired the smooth, singing line of the third movement while missing the rhythmic feeling of the sarabande, the graceful dance that gives it its rhythmic underpinning. The finale is another French dance type, the lively "Tambourin." Gale's playing was full of bounce and dynamic contrast, a vigorous, rustic-sounding performance that accelerated to a bravura close.
Brahms' Sonata No. 2, Op. 100 is overall a sunny work, from a happy time in the composer's life. Gale threw off the opening phrases nonchalantly before digging into the first theme (...)
He played an expressively shaped melodic line in the second movement contrasted by airy lightness in the scherzo-like faster section. The violinist's Romantic sensibility, with judiciously-applied portamento (slight sliding from note to note), filled the performance with conviction.

The second half of the recital stayed in the 19th century, starting with the music of one of its greatest violin virtuosi, Pablo de Sarasate. His "Introduction and Tarantella," Op. 43, got a spirited, characterful performance, showy and exciting. According to legend, the Neapolitan dance form "tarantella" got its name from the tarantula, whose bite it was said to cure, and dancing to this performance might well have done the trick.

Dvorak's Romantic Pieces Op. 75 offer the performer many moods to express. Gale played sensitively and songfully in the opening piece, then with full-blooded gusto in the second (...) the slow final piece was a highlight of the evening. Expressively sighing, tragic in tone, the playing went beyond showiness to plumb the depths of the music and hint at the composer's (and performers') soul.

Wieniawski's "Scherzo-Tarantella" Op. 16 (that spider again) closed the program with fireworks and panache.

------------------------------

“Stars Shine at Belair Center Classical Concert”
by Geno Lawrenzi
Today - St. Maarten, Netherland Antilles
June 4, 2007

Shining stars lit up the stage for the Anastacia Larmonie Vocal Art and Music Foundation’s Midsummer Night Classical Concert at the Belair Community Center Sunday evening.

A packed house responded with enthusiasm to 20-year-old violin virtuoso David Gale. Playing a violin by Nicolo Amati made in 1678(...) Gale stole the show with selections from Sarasate, Mozart, Kreisler and Paganini. He nearly brought the house down with his bouncy rendition of Witches Dance and Theme from “Schindler’s List.”(...)

While the appreciative audience rewarded all of the performers with applause, their clear favorite was young Gale.

Bobbing and weaving like a dancer, he literally made the Amati sing. His body language resonated with the audience, and his performance was subdued, powerful and entertaining. More than a little credit must go to the qualities of the ancient violin that came alive in his hands.

One of those in attendance with her two young children was island architect Sandra Fischer who told “Today” Gale’s performance was thrilling. A group of professional musicians and singers agreed, with one noting, “He is the best violinist I have heard perform on St. Maarten.”

The two hour concert finished on a high note with Summertime, by George and Ira Gershwin, featuring Hazel, Gale and the Vocal Ensemble.(...)

Blog Posts

2014: Jan.

2013: Aug.

2012: Mar. Jun. Nov.