David James Stuart

David James Stuart became interested in music at age 7, though this interest centered primarily around drums and synthesizers, neither of which were readily available to learn on, so at the urging of a friend he began taking guitar lessons in school. David was living in Bozeman, Montana and Christopher Parkening was the Artist in Residence at Montana State University. David had 2 private teachers in Bozeman and both were students of Mr. Parkening. They introduced David to classical guitar but he was more interested in learning Beatles tunes at that time.

A few years later, after moving to New England, David started lessons with Randy Armstrong who at the time was with the World Group Do’ah. Randy began to convince David of the importance of classical technique in any style of guitar playing.

While in college David got a teaching gig and the owner of the studio insisted that the teachers in his shop to further develop their skills so David pursued more classical education.

Michael Hedges’ album Aerial Boundaries opened up a new way of thinking about the guitar. All of the things David had been studying and had developed over the years came together in this “New Acoustic” style. The following summer he had the opportunity to study with Michael in a master class at the National Guitar Summer Workshop in Connecticut and did so again the following year.

After changing his major to music, David began his most serious study of classical guitar with Marianne Rousseau. At the end of his senior year David applied for and was accepted as a performer at the Christopher Parkening master class in Bozeman, Montana. A friend of Mr. Parkening asked if David was nervous playing for Mr. Parkening and if so, he said it didn’t show. He said “If you can play like that in front of Chris you can play anywhere”.

David’s style incorporates elements from his various influences; rock, classical and acoustic, which are blended into a unique and engaging sound. David has performed in many venues including First Night Boston and the opening and closing ceremonies of the Boston Special Olympics. He has worked in conjunction with Steven Baldwin (Playomatic Media) composing music for short films as well as lending guitar work to a number of local artist’s albums. Most recently he has composed and performed incidental music in Gordon College’s production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle. David has had music available on Download.com since June of 2004 and since then has had over 100,000 “listens”. David is working on a new CD slated for release in 2008.