David served as principal trumpet with the Seoul Philharmonic, the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, and the Sinfónica de Asturias in Spain, which included concert and television performances with tenor Luciano Pavarotti. Equally active as a soloist and clinician, David has presented concerts and master classes in New York, Dallas, Cleveland, Istanbul, Scotland, Italy, and throughout Asia.
What
keeps you coming back to this event year after year?
David: First and foremost, I come back because of curiosity.
It is plain and simple. In the performing arts, nothing of real value happens without it; curiosity is the
heartbeat of artistic expression. It pushes us to explore, innovate, and connect in ways we never
imagined.
Connecting with other people is just as important, however. NPAPW brings together an
international cadre of the most inspiring, passionate, and forward-thinking artists and technologists I’ve
ever met. Being part of that community is not only energizing — it’s transformative.
What
have you learned from the IT and networking professionals at NPAPW?
David: One of the most valuable aspects of NPAPW has been
the opportunity to build genuine partnerships with IT and networking professionals — not just conversations,
but collaborations.
In music, we often take connectivity for granted. We expect sound and image
to move effortlessly across space. However, the reality is that high-fidelity, low-latency performance over
a network is technically demanding, and it requires a level of precision and understanding that most
musicians don’t fully grasp.
Working alongside networking experts has changed that. I’ve learned
how university firewalls, packet shaping, and jitter, switches, and data streams can make or break a musical
experience. In turn, the technical folks have learned why those things matter so much to musicians.
Real-time collaboration isn’t just a “nice-to-have” in the arts anymore; for many of us, it’s core to our
creative practice and pedagogy.
These partnerships have led to actual change at my institution. I
was able to bring our IT team into the conversation. Because of that, we’re now thinking proactively about
how to support musical performance across networks, not as an exception, but as part of the core mission.
That shift in mindset only happens when both sides are in the same room listening to and learning from one
another.
Why is
it important for Performing Arts faculty and staff to work closely with IT and networking staff at
institutions and organizations involved in these initiatives?
David: Our art form now lives across both physical and
digital spaces. If performing artists and faculty don’t work closely with IT, we risk building in isolation,
using tools that aren’t optimized for what we actually do.
When we collaborate, we stop seeing
tech as a barrier and start using it as a creative partner. That’s where innovation happens.
Can you
list some examples of big takeaways from these workshops that you’ve implemented back at the University
of Memphis? Is there anything you learned at NPAPW that you wouldn’t have picked up
elsewhere?
David: I was able to convince my administration to invest in
hardware specifically for exploring and experimenting with synchronous performance
technologies.
That investment opened the door for conversations with our university’s IT team
about the unique technological needs of a school of music. Musical collaboration demands low-latency,
high-fidelity audio and video. These requirements are often at odds with standard IT security protocols.
These discussions led to a greater institutional awareness of what it truly takes to support real-time
musical interaction across networks.
As a
previous workshop host, what do you hope attendees will gain out of their participation at
NPAPW25?
David: For those of us in higher education, it opens our
eyes to new ways of tackling persistent myths around student engagement. Most importantly, the workshop
highlights how technology isn’t just a tool, it’s a pathway to reimagining how we connect, teach, and create
in the face of today’s challenges and ever-shrinking resources.
I can say with confidence that
attendees will leave both inspired and filled with a renewed sense of possibility.
One of the
most powerful takeaways for me is how quickly NPAPW shattered many of the common misconceptions surrounding
the limits of synchronous performance and applied pedagogy in the arts. It brought clarity where there had
been doubt or bias, and showed what is truly possible.
Why do
you think it is important for Performing Arts faculty to attend this workshop?
David: NPAPW is the only workshop I know of that’s entirely
devoted to bringing these worlds together, asking bold questions, sparking new ideas, and showcasing what is
possible. It’s more than a workshop; it’s an incubator for the future of performance, education, and
innovation.
Performance (and the teaching of performance) has never been about standing still.
Our discipline thrives on transformation and embraces change as its lifeblood.
Right now, we
stand at the threshold of extraordinary opportunities to open new doors to access by collaborating across
disciplines, particularly with our colleagues in science and technology.
Personally, I want to be
at the forefront of that movement.
Are you an artist, performer, tech professional, or arts administrator interested in using cutting-edge networks and tools for arts education and performance? You’re invited to shape the future of Performing Arts at NPAPW25!