Saxophonist David Zucchi is pursuing a PhD in Music Performance at the University of Huddersfield’s Centre for Research in New Music. CeReNeM is the ideal place for David to research and interpret the experimental performance practices in the saxophone music of James Tenney, an American composer, pianist and music theorist who taught at York University in Toronto for over 25 years, along with other music composed in the American experimental music tradition. In 2021 David was awarded the CCSF’s Belle Shenkman Award for the Study of the Arts and in 2022 he has been awarded the CCSF’s Dasha Shenkman Award.
In 2021 David was awarded both the Mixed Ensemble Award and the Overseas Award, given to the top Commonwealth performer from the Royal Overseas League Annual Music Competition, one of the UK’s most prestigious music competitions.
Together with Paolo Griffin, David was awarded a Canada Arts Council Grant to create a new piece of music based on his research at Huddersfield. This received an enthusiastic response at its first performance at the beginning of September 2022 in Toronto. It will receive its UK debut in the 2022/2023 season at the University of Huddersfield with repeat performances to follow at other venues.
David presented at the Music Since 1900 conference at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in June 2022 to a specialist audience from all over the world. His presentation outlined his research at the CeReNeM, including a performance of James Tenney’s music.
Outside his research David has been busy performing at a variety of venues including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. He also collaborated with CCSF musical scholars Emily Gibson Brown, 2021, and Charis Hanning, 2010, during the champagne reception for the 2022 Maple Leaf Trust Ball in the stunning John Madejski Garden at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
This September David will be performing in several more concerts in Toronto and then in Lucerne and Zurich, Switzerland in October before returning to the UK for his studies which will be interspersed with performances throughout the year including at various UK festivals.
David is looking forward to teaching performance classes to undergraduate and master’s students at Huddersfield for the first time this year. When David graduates in 2024 he plans to continue to teach at the post-secondary level and to perform and record.
David was awarded the Dasha Shenkman Award 2022 – 2023
