David Berry III

David Berry is an active classical pianist whose performances have been featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, the UW World Series at the University of Washington, as well as live broadcasts of WQXR (New York City). He has been a featured soloist with the Hudson Symphony Orchestra and served as guest artist and adjudicator for the Zelpha Wells Piano Competition. As a performer of new music, he has worked with or premiered works by a number of noted composers, including James Lee III, Jeffery Scott (Imani Winds) and grammy-award winning composer Jennifer Higdon. David was a featured soloist in the Juilliard School’s Focus Festival, All About Elliott, celebrating the 100th birthday of Elliott Carter, and also featured in piano series’ hosted by author David Dubal at the Kosciusko Foundation and the Cervantes Institute. David was the Grand Prize Winner of the Bradshaw and Buono International Piano Competition, as well as a prizewinner in the Thousand Islands International Piano Competition.

An avid chamber musician, David has collaborated with members of many of the nation’s leading orchestras, including the New Jersey, Houston, St. Louis, Dallas, and Seattle symphonies. He has toured and regularly concertized as a resident member of the Jacksonville, Florida based Ritz Chamber Players, The Harlem Chamber Players, and the innovative chamber music theater group, the Core Ensemble. As an arts administrator, David serves as Coordinator of Chamber Music and a member of the artistic planning committee for the Gateways Music Festival at the Eastman School of Music, a biennial festival which celebrates the contributions of musicians of African descent to classical music, and features over 120 players from major American orchestras and university faculties across the United States.

In addition to his accomplishments as a classical musician, David is an avid improviser of jazz, gospel, and popular contemporary piano styles, and also enjoys composing his own concert arrangements of hymns.

David received his Bachelor of Music with High Distinction from the Eastman School of Music, and Masters and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in piano performance from the Juilliard School where he was a recipient of the C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellowship and Susan W. Rose Piano Scholarship. David’s piano teachers have included Martin Canin, Douglas Humpherys, and George Skafidas, with collaborative piano coachings under Russell Miller and chamber music studies under Seymour Lipkin, Jacob Lateiner, and Jonathan Feldman.

Festival Concert II – Beethoven Piano Concerto no.4, Shenandoah Valley Bach Festival, Spring 2018

Music Faculty Artist Series: David Berry, piano, Eastern Mennonite University, Harrisonburg, VA, Spring 2018

Tres Vidas Chamber Music Theater Performance, Core Ensemble, El Centro College, Dallas, TX, Spring 2018

Guest Artist Solo Recital, Midwinter Adult Piano Retreat, Lake Worth, FL, Fall 2018

Ritz Chamber Players Artists Perspectives Series: Kyle Lombard, violin and David Berry, piano,
Cummer Museum, Jacksonville, FL, Spring 2017

Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic – Opening Night Performance, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Summer 2016

Spring Concert, ChamberMusicNY, Merkin Hall, New York, NY Spring 2016

Chamber Music Recital, Ritz Chamber Players, Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA, Spring 2016

Alison Buchanan with David Berry and the Ritz Chamber Players, National Sawdust, New York, NY,
Spring 2016

Season Opening Concert, Harlem Chamber Players, New York, NY, Fall 2015

David Berry, piano, Colour of Music Festival, Charleston, SC, Fall 2014

Tres Vidas Chamber Music Theater Concert, Core Ensemble, California State University-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, Spring 2013

Chamber Music Concert, Ritz Chamber Players, Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts, Jacksonville, FL, Spring 2013

UW World Series – Chamber Music Concert, Ritz Chamber Players, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, Spring 2013

Adjudication and Other Presentations

Adjudicator, Virginia Music Teachers Association District Auditions, James Madison University, Spring 2018

Adjudicator, HMTA/EMU Piano Festival, Piano duet competition, Eastern Mennonite University, Spring 2018

Adjudicator, Virginia MTNA Piano Competition Senior and Junior Divisions, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, Fall 2017

Presentation, “Jazz in the Classical Piano Studio.” Harrisonburg Music Teachers Association, Harrisonburg, VA, Fall 2017

Adjudicator, Zelpha Wells Piano Competition, Stillman College, Tuscaloosa, AL, Spring 2014

Music Teachers National Association
Virginia Music Teachers Association
Harrisonburg Music Teachers Association, President (upcoming July 2018)
Gateways Music Festival, Artistic Programs Committee, Coordinator of Chamber Music