David Hart, a native of California, leads an international music career focusing on both education and performance. Hart has taught and performed in the United States, Thailand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Passionate about music teaching and learning, David completed a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Music Education from the Eastman School of Music. In this degree, David has had the unique opportunity to work closely with both the music education and jazz departments while teaching undergraduate courses in jazz improvisation, jazz history, jazz theory, jazz big band, and jazz combo. He has studied performance and improvisation privately with Clay Jenkins, Harold Danko, Bill Dobbins, Dr. Christopher Azzara, and Jeff Campbell. Inspired by Dr. Christopher Azzara and Dr. Richard Grunow, David focuses his education research on ways to improve creativity in the music learning process for all styles of music.
In June of 2010, Hart accepted a full-time teaching position at the Harker School in San Jose, California. As one of the largest independent private schools on the West Coast, Harker possesses a strong performing arts program. Dr. Hart was head of Middle School Instrumental music program for 8 years teaching jazz band, orchestra, and choir. Currently, Dr. Hart is head of Upper School Instrumental Music directing the Harker Orchestra and Jazz Band and teaching courses in AP Music Theory and Improvisation. Hart is also active at both the lower and middle schools as a teacher working with other instructors to create a unified music curriculum. Dr. Hart helped found the Harker Concert Series and is artistic director.
After receiving his Masters degree in both Music Education and Jazz Studies from the Eastman School of Music, Hart accepted a position on faculty at Mahidol University, College of Music in Thailand, which maintains an international faculty and offers degrees for pre-college through graduate level students. As a Professor of Music Education and Trumpet Performance, Dr. Hart participated in both the Jazz and Classical Departments working with the wind ensemble, symphonic band, orchestra, and brass choir. David started the first jazz trumpet studio in Thailand and helped turn the Mahidol Jazz Ensemble into one of the premier groups in Southeast Asia. Dr. Hart also taught graduate level courses in Music Education working with a diverse population of students from Thailand, Singapore, Myanmar, and Malaysia. He was the advisor for masters level research projects and taught courses on Instrumental Teaching Techniques, Introduction to Music Education, and Measurement and Evaluation.
As a jazz artist, David has performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival, San Francisco Jazz Festival, Rochester Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, and Stanford Jazz Festival to name a few. He has also had the pleasure of performing, teaching, and studying with Gerald Wilson, Anthony Wilson, George Bohannon, Horace Silver, Louis Bellson, Clark Terry, Billy Higgins, Dave Liebman, Kenny Burrell, Arturo Sandoval, Ralph Alessi, Bill Berry, Rufus Reid, Jim Rotundi, Gary Bartz, Garnett Brown, Ingrid Jensen, Marvin Stamm, Dayna Stephens, Taylor Eigsti, Ted Poor, and others. As a classical performer, Dr. Hart has appeared with the Thailand Philharmonic, Malaysian International Festival Orchestra, Panang Symphony, International Trumpet Guild Festival of Trumpets, Eastman OSSIA ensembles, and Emerald Brass Quintet.
David holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from UCLA, Master of Music degree and a Doctorate of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman school of music. Dr. Hart’s principal trumpet teachers include; Clay Jenkins (Eastman School of Music), Doug Prosser (Eastman School of Music), Jens Lindemann (UCLA), and Robert Karon (UCLA).
“Creativity is as important as literacy in education”