Violin
About Me
David Taylor, known to Chicago audiences as a versatile soloist, chamber player, and orchestral musician, joined the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as Assistant Concertmaster in 1979.
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 in 1979. 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. He has for many years been the Concertmaster of the ArsViva Chamber Orchestra.
A lover of Chamber music, Mr. Taylor is the violinist of the Pressenda Piano Trio. Mr. Taylor gives recitals throughout the Chicagoland area, performs on WFMT, at the Ravinia Festival and solos with many orchestras in the Chicagoland area. Mr. Taylor teaches privately, at the Moody Bible Institute and at Roosevelt University and has students in orchestras across the United States and Japan.
Mr. Taylor plays on a J.B. Guadagnini violin made in 1744.