David Gonzalez
David Gonzalez is a storyteller, playwright, and performer whose poetry has been featured at Lincoln Center’s Out-of-Doors Festival, Bill Moyers’s documentary Fooling with Words, and NPR’s All Things Considered, and at universities and performing arts centers across the country.
“Oh Hudson,” a long-form piece, was commissioned by the Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Center to commemorate the Quadricentennial of Hudson’s exploration. “City of Dreams,” a spoken-word/Latin jazz project, commissioned by The University of Maryland and La MaMa, has toured throughout the U.S. David wrote the opera libretto for “Rise for Freedom,” as well as numerous plays, including “The Man of the House” (commissioned by the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts); “Mariel,” an Afro-Cuban musical (commissioned by Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park); “The Boy Who Could Sing Pictures,” and many more.
David has toured widely throughout the U.S. and abroad. He received his doctorate in Music Therapy from New York University and has garnered numerous awards and commissions. He is a Joseph Campbell Foundation Fellow, has extensive experience supporting communities through the arts, and is a proud recipient of the International Performing Arts for Youth “Lifetime Achievement Award for Sustained Excellence.”
David’s professional life began scholastically in the field of Music Therapy, where he earned undergraduate, master’s, and doctorate degrees. For twenty years he worked at social service sites throughout the New York City area with disabled and medically ill children, as well as adult psychiatric patients. The joining of art and human services set the context for meaning in his life and shaped the artistic vision that continues to drive his creative work today.
He has published two books for young readers that are available on Amazon: “Tío Jose and the Singing Trees” and “Tito and the Bridge Brigade”. David lives in the Hudson Valley region of New York State.
David’s latest release, Soundings, is his first book of poetry.
