David Morrissey is a California native, born and raised in Los Angeles. In 2008, he won the International Audition for the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra. He began playing the cello at the age of 8, and while in high school, started taking lessons with Ronald Leonard at the University of Southern California. Enrolled in two high schools, Long Beach Polytechnic and The Orange County High School for the Arts, his artistic development included Piano, Cello, and Vocal Jazz, and in 1995, his High School Jazz Ensemble won the prestigious Downbeat Magazine High School Jazz CD of the Year, and later, a Grammy Award for Musical excellence. He received his Bachelor’s Degree from Indiana University, Bloomington, where he studied with Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi and Janos Starker, and his Master’s Degree in Cello from Manhattan School of Music as a student of former Associate Principal Cellist of the NY Philharmonic, Alan Stepansky.
He continued his Orchestral studies in Miami Beach, Florida, with the New World Symphony, an Orchestral Academy, under the musical direction of Michael Tilson Thomas. In 2001, the Leipziger Volkszeitung called him ‘a cellist with a bright future’, and his performance of the David Ott Double Cello Concerto with the Evansville Philharmonic in 2003 was praised by the Evansville Courier Press as ‘exemplifying the purest sound and musical taste’. His performances have taken him all over the US, as well as Rome, Montepulciano, Leipzig, Berlin, and Tokyo just to name a few, and he is one of the founding members of the Young Janacek String Quartet.
In his spare time he enjoys swimming and yoga-ing and he is an avid outdoor enthusiast with a passion for exploration. He now spends his summers performing with the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder, Colorado, and climbing 14ers (mountains that exceed the 14,000 ft mark). He has also been known to spend his summers teaching not only music, but also swimming and science to K-6 graders in the Los Angeles area.
