Teaching

Hearing malady

David’s Music at a Glance

  • College & private:
    —Carleton College, Senior Lecturer, Northfiled, MN
    —Macalester College, Saint Paul, MN
    —Private, Minneapolis, MN

  • Opera
    ––White Nights, opera; performed live on Minnesota Public Radio by the Rochester Symphony & Chorus
    ––Ashoka, opera; recorded vocalists, virtual orchestra, with dance, O’Shaughnessy, Saint Paul, MN

  • Chorus & Orchestra
    ––Canticle, chorus & orchestra; live vocalists, virtual orchestra, with dance, O’Shaughnessy, Saint Paul, MN

  • Chamber Music
    ––Triumph of Truth & Time; trumpet & organ, University of Minnesota Trumpet Ensemble, Basilica of St. Mary, Minneapolis, MN

  • Hyperacusis
    ––In 2004 David developed the hearing malady hyperacusis, in which sound causes pain. I wore my ears out. This sharply curtailed all music activity for years. It has been a bit better recently and David has been able to function a bit more normally. In respect to sound anyway!

Recent & Upcoming Performances

  • Upcoming performance:
    ––November 12th, 2026 in Boston
    ‍ ‍The Other Side of Air, A Celebration in Poetry & Music of the Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke,
    ‍ ‍Sitar with poet & translator Mark Burrows, Follen Church, Lexington, MA

  • More Recent performances:
    ––Sitar with poet Jane Hirshfield, First Parish Church, Cambridge, MA
    ––Sitar with poet Li-Young Lee, East Carolina University, North Carolina
    ––Sitar with theologian Matthew Fox, Boston, MA
    ––Sitar with tabla master Pandit Shantilal Shah, streamed by Lexington, MA Community Education
    ––Vidyapati: The Season of Love & Honey, Sitar & Poetry, streamed by Lexington, MA Community Education
    ––Kabir: Rivers of Light, Sitar & Poetry, Macalester College
    ––Vidyapati: The Season of Love & Honey, Sitar & Poetry, Carleton College

Western compositions performed

  • Partial List
    —Town Hall, New York
    —Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco
    —Gandhi Center, Washington, DC
    ––Harvard University, Boston
    —Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
    —O’Shaughnessy Auditorium, Saint Paul
    —Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis
    ––Follen Church, Lexington, MA
    —London, England
    —Granada Theater, Santa Barbara
    ––Guthrie Theater Company, Minneapolis
    —National Public Radio
    ––Minnesota Public Radio (Interview)
    ––Follen Church, Lexington, MA

Sitar Performance Location

  • From way back in another life, a partial List
    —Town Hall, New York
    —Avery Fischer Hall, Lincoln Center, New York
    —Cooper Union, New York
    ––Brooklyn Symphony, Brooklyn, NY
    ––Greenwich Village Chamber Orchestra, New York
    ––New York City Opera
    ––Bennington Chamber Music Festival of the East

Horn performance

Purchase recordings of

David’s Sitar with poets

Robert Bly & Coleman

Barks

Rumi Voice of Longing

In the seven centuries since the death of Jelaluddin Rumi in 1273, the world has come to know and thrill to his sacred poetry. In concert with David Whetstone, sitar, and Marcus Wise, tabla, his writing is part of a religious tradition that is believed to excite "spiritual heroism," embracing the holiness of love, lamentation, battle, and the longing for God. Rumi: Voice of Longing collects nearly 100 of Rumi's most memorable quatrains, presented here for the first time on two superbly remastered CD recordings. Includes a special appearance by renowned poet Robert Bly.

Translated and performed by the Rumi scholar Coleman Barks, these works echo with a spiritual complexity that defies their outward simplicity. As Sufism acknowledges the truth of other religions, so does Rumi's poetry reflect universal themes: the search for the highest truth, the mystery of surrender, the longing to overcome ego imprisonment. Rumi: Voice of Longing captures the silence, the love, and the playfulness that make each experience with this work one of sacred wonder.