Saxophonist David Halliday's roots stretch back to northern California. Born in Sacramento, raised in Vacaville, in his teen-age years Halliday studied with multi-Grammy Award winner, saxophone legend Joe Henderson at Henderson’s home in San Francisco. David later studied briefly with Tony Dagradi at Loyola University in New Orleans. David holds a BM in Saxophone Performance with an Emphasis in Jazz Studies from Brigham Young University and is currently pursuing an MM in Jazz Performance, Composition/Arranging, and Education from the University of Utah where he was the jazz area's Teacher's Assistant from ’04-‘06, and studies composition and arranging with Dr. Henry Wolking. From fall ’06 – summer ’07, David taught jazz, band, and percussion at Park City High School and Treasure Mountain International (Middle) School, where he took the PCHS Varsity Jazz Ensemble from what was expected to be a rebuilding year to being one of only five high school jazz ensembles to receive unanimous “Superior” ratings at the Utah High School Activities Association State Jazz Festival. Halliday has won such prestigious awards as the (only) Outstanding College Performer Award at the Reno International Jazz Festival in 1996, and the Outstanding Collegiate Tenor Saxophone Soloist award at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow, Idaho each year, from 1999-2002. His professional career began in Sacramento with guitarist/singer/songwriter Early Times, in San Jose with organist Chester E. Smith and Blue Note recording artist Eddie Gale, and in the Napa Valley with Delbert Bump and the Braxton Brothers, all while David was still in high school. In 1994 David moved to New Orleans and hooked up with the New Orleans funk band Galactic, propelled by Stanton Moore's uniquely explosive drumming, with whom he performed briefly before returning to California to go on the road. Playing tenor sax with Oakland's soul/blues diva E.C. Scott and her band Smoke in 1997-98, David toured through 44 of the United States and performed for a week at Blues Hall in Athens, Greece. He performed with Chet Smith in Washington, D.C. for a video-taped performance that aired internationally in celebration of Chet's winning BET's (Black Entertainment Television's) Jazz Discovery Award. As a featured soloist in Synthesis (Brigham Young University's elite jazz ensemble), David toured through Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and the U.K. Within the recording industry, David's saxophone work has been featured on the soundtrack to the long-running CBS T.V. show Touched By An Angel, the NBA theme on ABC television, a Corona Light television commercial, and numerous other local and national commercials and recording projects. His original music was licensed by CBS in late 2006. He appeared on-screen as a saxophone player in an episode of Everwood on the WB network, has appeared multiple times on KBYU television, and has performed the National Anthem at two Utah Jazz playoff games. David has performed with and/or sat it with many internationally recognized musicians, including Josh Groban, The Temptations, Galactic, Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard, David “Fathead” Newman, Stanley Turrentine, Bobby Shew, Kenny Garrett, Kurt Elling, Robert Walter's 20th Congress, Walter "Wolfman" Washington, Kenny Kirkland, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Wycliffe Gordon, Ben Wolfe, Charlie Hunter, Larry Goldings, Eric Reed, Donald Harrison, Bob Sheppard, Terreon Gully, Greg Hutchinson, Matt Wilson, Javon Jackson, Eric Marienthal, Terell Stafford, Matt Dennis, Claudio Roditi, Byron Stripling, Roger Ingram, Eric Miyashiro, Kathy Kosins, Dennis DiBlasio, Joslyn Petty, Kurt Bestor, and Sam Cardon, among others. In 2003, David started his own record label, Lone Peak Sound, and released his debut album FLAMINGO - an album Emmy Award-winning composer/performer Sam Cardon calls "the best jazz to ever come out of Utah." Lone Peak Sound currently has six titles available which David has produced or co-produced: FLAMINGO, FAT SOUL's self-titled debut, A FAT SOUL CHIRSTMAS, Salt Lake City vocalist Melissa Pace's debut AM I BLUE?, jazz vocalist Angela Bingham (and Kenji Aihara's) duet masterpiece EVERYTHING I LOVE, and Nicole Madison’s debut P.S. I LOVE YOU. He’s also currently producing the debut album of Dr. Steve Lindeman, Associate Professor of Music Theory and Jazz Studies at BYU. David is currently one of the most in-demand saxophonists and clinicians in the Mountain West, playing in California, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana, and teaching at The Music School in American Fork, UT, and at the Jackson Hole Music Experience’s Rock ‘n’ Rock camp. To schedule David for performance, production or a private lesson, contact him directly at lonepeaksound@yahoo.com. For more information about David including performance dates, visit www.myspace.com/davidhalliday.
