David Middleton

About

After leaving behind years of architectural apprenticeship, his professional music experience began in the early 1990s as an integral member of legendary DJ Tat Money's Halfro Productions team. While studying with private teachers such as Curtis Harmon Sr., Steve Giordano, Myrtle Young, and [Dennis Sandole students] Glenn Wallace and Pat Martino, he created his own ensemble -- JazGuardian -- that went on to engage corporate, political and public performances for nearly 15 years. He was also fortunate to begin performing, composing, and teaching with Khan Jamal & Barry Schuck’s Philadelphia Jazz Composers’ Forum, which led to collaborations with a wide variety of forward thinking artists and ensembles around the Philadelphia tri-state region.

Since 2000, he has continued to rehearse, tour internationally and record as a member of the Sun Ra Arkestra, under the direction of Marshall Allen. Through that association, he's received commissions to transcribe and orchestrate the music of Sun Ra for university music programs and international ensembles -- such as the Germany based ensemble MusikFabrik, with whom he subsequently completed a 3-week artist-in-residency program to explore the intersection of Sun Ra composition and performance, Harry Partch instrumentation, and spectral music aesthetics.

Internationally, he has played alongside many seminal Arkestra members and others including Wayne Krantz of MC5 , poet John Sinclair, Bernie Worrell, DJ Spooky, bassists John Ore and Juni Booth, violinist Billy Bang, percussionist Robert Kenyatta, avant-garde multi-instrumentalists William Parker and Kali Fasteau, Tuvan throat-singing ensemble Alash, legendary Tuvan musician Kongar-ol Ondar (star of the Oscar award winning documentary Genghis Blues), and has briefly toured and filmed with Solange Knowles.

In 2018/19 he served as music director & consultant for Philadelphia Jazz Project’s Satellites Are Spinning concert series, and worked with afro-futurist multidisciplinary artist Rashaad Newsome. He is currently a participating member of Philadelphia’s Arcana New Music Ensemble (beginning with resurgent performances of the works of Black avant-garde composer Julius Eastman).

The last few years has also seen him begin touring and recording with the guitar/vocal electronic-jazz duo Jupiter Blue, and continuing to work at incorporating remote mixing, composition, media scoring, and instrument tracking services for clients as diverse as ballet companies, independent artists, and music library publishers into his portfolio. He's scheduled to begin teaching a course in improvisation strategies at Curtis Institute of Music during
the 2022 school year.