David Taylor
Concertmaster
Violinist David Taylor is Concertmaster of Ars Viva. Known to audiences as a versatile soloist, chamber player, and orchestral musician, he has been delighting Chicago audiences since 1979 when he became the Assistant Concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Born in Canton, Ohio, in 1949, Mr. Taylor first studied with his father at the age of four. Later teachers included Margaret Randall and Rafael Druian at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Ivan Galamian and Dorothy DeLay at the Juilliard School, where Mr. Taylor earned Bachelor's and Master's degrees. In 1974 Mr. Taylor joined the Cleveland Orchestra where he was a first violinist before coming to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Concertmaster in 1979. Since then Mr.Taylor has made fourteen appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra with conductors Sir Georg Solti and Kenneth Jean. Critics praised his "well-focused tone, poised line, and aristocratic phrasing" (John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune), calling him "a splendid soloist" (Robert Marsh, Chicago Sun-Times). Mr. Taylor has been the Acting Concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and is currently Concertmaster of the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, the Ars Viva Symphony Orchestra, and the Park Ridge Symphony.
A lover of chamber music, Mr. Taylor is the violinist of the Pressenda Piano Trio which performs regularly in Chicago and throughout the world. As a soloist he recently performed and taught at the Las Vegas and Marrowstone Music Festivals (Bellingham, WA) and played three concerti with the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra. He is featured on a CD entitled "Music Under the Dome" on the Naim label (Naim CD003) playing the Mendelssohn Octet, and on a CD with the Sinfonia Orchestra on the Koch lablel. Mr. Taylor gives recitals throughout the Chicagoland area, performs on WFMT, and solos with many area orchestras. He has performed in chamber ensembles at the Ravinia Festival with Schlomo Mintz, Lynn Harrell, and James Levine, and at Northwestern University with Daniel Barenboim and other members of the CSO.
Mr. Taylor teaches privately and is a faculty member at Northeastern Illinois University. He has twice traveled to Japan for the Iida Foundation to teach Japanese orchestral violinists. He has been a coach for the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, Florida. His students occupy seats in many of the finest orchestras in the United States.
Mr. Taylor is married to Michelle Wynton, also a violinist, and has a daughter, Sarah, who lives in Wheaton, Illinois. Mr. Taylor plays on a J.B. Guadagnini violin made in Piacenza, Italy, in 1744.