David Henderson

David Henderson has degrees from the University of Michigan and the Juilliard School. His teachers include Larry Teal, Donald Sinta, Joseph Allard and Jean-Marie Londeix. In 1980, he gave his Carnegie Recital Hall solo debut as a winner of the East and West Artists competition, with the New York Times stating “an exceptionally accomplished instrumentalist with something to say, his work is poised, cultivated, and expressive.” In 1981, he received a first prize in saxophone from the Conservatoire de Bordeaux as a recipient of a Fulbright-ITT grant to study in France. Since moving to San Francisco in 1988, he has played regularly with the San Francisco Symphony, Opera, and Ballet, including many tours and recordings under maestro Michael Tilson Thomas. He has been seen in several PBS Great Performances broadcasts by both the San Francisco Symphony and San Francisco Ballet. He has toured with the BBC Symphony under Andrew Davis and performed with the New World Symphony, the Bolshoi Ballet and Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Russian National Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cabrillo Festival and the International Contemporary Ensemble under John Adams. He has appeared as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, the Oakland/East Bay Symphony and the Bay Area Rainbow Symphony and plays regularly with the Sun Valley Summer Music Festival and the NapaValley Music Festival. In 1989, he joined the San Francisco Saxophone Quartet as tenor saxophonist and keyboard player. Starting out as street musicians in downtown San Francisco, the group was discovered on the street by the president of Angel/EMI records in 1990, and subsequently recorded many CDs and toured most of the 50 states as well as Japan. In 2005, he joined the Premiere Saxophone Quartet, artists-in-residence at San José State University. He has worked as a musician at Disney World and Great America theme parks, and played both on and off-Broadway, including the original productions of Nunsense and March of the Falsettos. Mr. Henderson taught for many years at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, CA. He currently teaches saxophone at The San Francisco Conservatory as well as Stanford University.