David Spelman

David Spelman (born 1966, Washington, DC) is a New York-based music producer and curator working in recordings, films and live events

Mark Eitzel (left) and David Spelman during recording sessions for Vidal Sassoon The Movie; photo by Vasilios Sfinarolakis

Early life

David was educated at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and the New England Conservatory, where he was selected as one of the one-hundred most distinguished alumni, as part of the 2004 Centenary Celebration of Jordan Hall. At the Peabody Institute he studied renaissance lute with the Grammy-nominated lutenist Ronn McFarlane, and performed in the Peabody Renaissance Ensemble. At the New England Conservatory he was a student of classical guitarist David Leisner.

In a 2009 interview with Allan Kozinn, published in the New York Times Sunday Arts & Leisure, Spelman discussed the influence of classical guitarist and composer Benjamin Verdery, whom he had taken a master class with at Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz, California.

In the 1980s, David trained in acoustic guitar design and construction under luthier Jeff Trougott, known for making custom acoustic guitars for players including Charlie Hunter and John Mayer.

New York Guitar Festival

Together with author and WNYC Radio host John Schaefer, David founded the New York Guitar Festival in 1999. The festival's inaugural season included three concerts at Merkin Concert Hall, but in later years expanded to include many venues throughout the city, including Carnegie Hall, The World Financial Center Winter Garden, The 92nd Street Y, Joe’s Pub, The Jazz Standard, Le Poisson Rougue, Flushing Town Hall, Makor, BB King Blues Club, The Monkey, Barbes, and The Apple Store theater in SoHo. The festival has attracted extensive recognition in the international media, built partnerships with leading NPR stations for live radio broadcasts, and assisted in the launch of sister festivals in cities in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia[2]. David serves as the festival's Artistic Director.

Film projects

In 2010, David served as music supervisor for Vidal Sassoon The Movie, a feature-length documentary about revolutionary hairstylist Vidal Sassoon. The soundrack features music by American Music Club's Mark Eitzel, post-rock chamber ensembles Clogs (featuring guitarist Bryce Dessner of The National), Redhooker, and Arcade Fire side project Bell Orchestre. The film had its premiere at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival.

David has commissioned scores by Justin Vernon of Bon Iver[1], Marc Ribot, James Blackshaw, Gyan Riley, David Bromberg, Steve Kimock, Alex de Grassi, and Chicha Libra, for classic silent films by Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harry Everett Smith, Yasujiro Ozu, Wu Yonggang, and Georges Melies.

Luminato – Toronto Festival of Arts and Creativity

In 2009, this multi-disciplinary, international arts festival hired David as Guest Curator to oversee the festival's music programing. The Globe and Mail's James Bradshaw wrote: "to attract top-flight talent, Luminato tapped into the mind and rolodex of David Spelman." Programing highlights included free outdoor concerts by Goran Bregovic, The Derek Trucks Band, Daniel Lanois, Taj Mahal, Randy Bachman, Pandit Debashish Bhattcharya, a all-day Brazilian Guitar Marathon (co-curated by The Assad Duo), and a sold-out tribute to Neil Young at Massey Hall, featuring the Cowboy Junkies; Holly Cole; Danny Michel; Steven Page; Carole Pope; Bill Frisell Trio; Issa (formerly Jane Siberry); Colin Linden; Stevie Jackson (Belle & Sebastian); Harry Manx; Jason Collett; Sarah Slean and musical director Kevin Breit. The Neil Young tribute attracted front page coverage in local and national newspapers, and the concert was broadcast on CBC Radio.

Adelaide International Guitar Festival

In 2007, David was recruited by the Adelaide Festival Centre to launch and oversee artistic direction of a major international festival. The ten-day Adelaide International Guitar Festival was modeled on the New York Guitar Festival, and drew 30 thousand people in the first year. The event had a three-million dollar budget and received a four-year grant from the South Australian Government. The Adelaide Review wrote that "never before have we had a festival like this... the Guitar Festival was a roaring success and an unqualified winner." Rolling Stone called it "a genuinely international event."

Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

In 2005 David was invited to launch and oversee a biannual guitar festival in Urbana, Illinois, modeled on the New York Guitar Festival. The three-day festival attracts over 10 thousand patrons, and has received praise in Chicago, Guitar Player, and Down Beat. Initially called The Wall To Wall Guitar Festival, the festival's name was changed in 2009 to Ellnora, The Guitar Festival [2], in honor of Ellnora Krannert, one of the visionary founders of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.

On September 11, 2009, the festival presented the world premiere of The Long Count, a 70-minute multi-media work. The piece was described as "Twin brothers Aaron and Bryce Dessner, best known as members of The National, join their musicianship with the narrative, set, and film work of visual artist Matthew Ritchie for an hour-long phenomenon that weaves the colors and cardinal directions of Mayan myth with the layout of a baseball diamond in an exploration of time and space commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Singers Matt Berninger (of The National), Shara Worden (of My Brightest Diamond), and sisters Kim and Kelley Deal (of The Breeders) will perform original compositions by the Dessners that will fuse with the continuous soundscape of a 12-person orchestra for a condensed visual epic brought to life through projected images and a mirrored stage surface." Following the Krannert Center performance, the work had its New York premiere in October 2009 at the Brookylyn Academy of Music .

The next Ellnora festival is scheduled for September 8 -10, 2011.

Live tribute events

David created several concert tributes to landmark record albums. In 2004 he produced the Blood on the Tracks Project, a concert at New York City’s Merkin Concert Hall celebrating the 30th anniversary of the classic Bob Dylan album. The event was broadcast live on WFUV and as a two-hour radio special, syndicated to over fifty NPR affiliates. His 2006 Nebraska Project, featured a wide range of performers, including Dan Zanes, Michelle Shocked, The National, Chocolate Genius, Martha Wainwright, and Bruce Springsteen, and received extensive press coverage, including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Spin, Billboard, and Pitchfork. The concert was filmed, with Fugazi’s Brendan Canty directing, for future DVD release. In 2007 his two-night American Beauty Project included performances by Jay Farrar, The Holmes Brothers, Sex Mob, Jim Lauderdale, Ollabelle, Dar Williams, and The Klezmatics, drew capacity crowds at New York’s Winter Garden, has toured to several cities in North America, and in January 2009 had a repeat performance at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts as part of the American Songbook series.

Literary events

In April 2009, for National Poetry Month, Arts World Financial Center enlisted David to curate and produce a tribute to Pablo Neruda, the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature winner. The event, Songs of Love & Despair: A Musical Tribute to Pablo Neruda, featured performances/readings by artists from around the globe, including Clogs, the Czech experimental musician Irene & Vojtech Havel, Colin Stetson (Sway Machinery, Bell Orchestre, Arcade Fire), Pedro Soler with Basque vocal improviser Beñat Achiary, poet and Bowery Poetry Club founder Bob Holman, experimental performance artist Laurie Anderson, rock musician Lou Reed, and Chilean poet Cecilia Vicuña.

In 2005 and 2006 David was appointed curator of Other Words/Other Worlds, a festival celebrating National Jazz and Poetry Month at Flushing Town Hall in Queens, New York. The festival featured workshops, film screenings, musical performances, and a 24-hour poetry jam session. Musicians who performed included Matthew Shipp, The Nat Jones Trio, Peter Apfelbaum, Chris Cheek, as well as local high-school jazz ensembles. Readings included Spanish, Russian, Korean and Chinese poets, a second grade poetry club, and poets Everton Sylverton, Bob Holman, and Hal Sirowitz.

In the early 1990s David served as the music director and co-producer of Third Friday Respite, a series of literary readings and classical music at Manhattan’s Church of the Advent Hope. Highlights included a reading of C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters as well as a year-long, complete reading of John Milton’s epic 17th century poem Paradise Lost.

Visual arts

As a visual arts curator, David has organized gallery exhibits in New York and Toronto by photographers Ralph Gibson, Danny Clinch, Andy Summers, Jack Vartoogian, Steve Sherman, Rahav Segev, and Hank O’Neal. He has also organized an exhibition of vintage music posters by Milton Glaser.

Discography

Highway Dancing, The Yearlings (Mixmasters, 2008): Producer. The third full-length recording by The Yearlings, a roots/alternative country duo, from Australia. The album featured contributions by Larry Campbell (pedal steel, dobro, mandolin, fiddle), as well as Glenn Patscha, Byron Isaacs, and Tony Leone, members of the Brooklyn-based band Ollabelle.

The Virginia EP, The National, (Brassland, 2008). Mixing Engineer, for "Mansion on the Hill," originally recorded by Bruce Springsteen.

Guitar Harvest (Solid Air, 2005): Co-producer. A two-CD compilation, featuring Andy Summers, Bill Frisell, Vernon Reid, Ralph Towner, Henry Kaiser, Alex de Grassi and other artists. Mojo gave it a four-star review, saying “This largely acoustic set is guaranteed to leave guitar buffs drooling,” while Total Guitar noted that “Not only does it feature some of the most astonishing guitar playing we’ve heard all year… but all proceeds go to buying guitars and guitar lessons for inner city kids.”