David Darling (musician)


David Darling is an American cellist and composer. In 2010, he won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album. He has performed and recorded with Bobby McFerrin and Spyro Gyra and has released several solo albums.

Music career

Darling was born in Elkhart, Indiana. He was interested in music from an early age, beginning piano when he was four, cello at ten, and string bass in high school. He studied classical cello at Indiana State University and after graduating remained there another four years as a teacher.
He worked as a studio musician in Nashville, Tennessee and was a member of the Paul Winter Consort until 1978. During the following year, he formed the chamber jazz group Gallery with Ralph Towner and released his first solo album.
Darling's performance and composition draw on a wide range of styles, including classical, jazz, Brazilian, African, and Indian music.
He has written and performed music for more than a dozen major motion pictures, the horror film Child's Play, Heat, and Until the End of the World. He contributed music to Nouvelle Vague, Éloge de l'amour, and Notre musique.
In 2000, he recorded an unusual collaboration with the Wulu Bunun, a group of Taiwanese aborigines.
In 2007 he recorded The Darling Conversations, with Julie Weber discussing his music philosophy. It was issued by Manifest Spirit Records. In January 2009, Darling released the Grammy winning, Prayer for Compassion, a follow-on to his earlier 8-String Religion.

Other activities

In 1986, Darling joined Young Audiences, an organization that seeks to educate children about music and the arts through school programs. In the same year, he founded Music for People, which seeks to encourage self-expression through musical improvisation. His teaching methods are the subject of a book, Return to Child.
In May 2008, he became part of a collaboration of music teacher and performers offering a training program in holistic and intercultural approaches to healing with sound and music at the New York Open Center Sound and Music School.

Awards and honors

As leader

With Peter Kater
With Ketil Bjørnstad
With Terje Rypdal
With Jacqueline Tschabold Bhuyan
With others