SAA Evaluations Committee Report

Dr. David Littrell is a University Distinguished Professor of Music at Kansas State University, where he conducts the university orchestra and teaches cello, double bass and viola da gamba. He has received undergraduate teaching awards twice. In 2007, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching named him Kansas Professor of the Year. He conducted the KSU Chamber Orchestra that toured England and Scotland in 2008 and will tour Ireland in 2011. He also conducts a youth string orchestra of seventy students that performed in England, British Columbia and several locales in the United States, including New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2001 and 2006.

David was the national president of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) from 2002 to 2004. He served six years as editor of the Books and Music Reviews section of the American String Teacher. He is editor and compiler of three volumes of Teaching Music through Performance in Orchestra, produced by GIA Publications, and is editor of ASTA’s String Syllabus 2009.

He received his bachelor of music degree in cello performance from Kansas State University, and a master’s and doctorate from The University of Texas at Austin. He played in the Denver (Colorado) Symphony and several other professional orchestras. He adjudicates solo and orchestra contests and is a clinician and conductor throughout the United States. In April, he gave seven solo cello recitals in churches and cathedrals in England: Devon, Coventry Cathedral, York, Carlisle Cathedral and the Lake District, and Lincoln Cathedral.

Three years ago, David began restoring an 1885 pioneer schoolhouse and reclaiming the derelict eleven acres of surrounding land. The schoolhouse is used for music camps and the land and arena will be used for horsemanship classes.

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