David Aaron Carpenter has emerged as one of the world’s most promising young violists. He has been acclaimed by the New York Times as “extraordinary,” and by The Strad as a violist "whose beautiful modulated tone makes a striking impression.” Since 2003, David has been performing with leading musicians and orchestras in the United States and Europe, making his orchestral debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach. He has made his recital debuts in the States at well-known venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Krannert Center, Herbst Theatre, and Pro Arte Musical. In Europe, he performed at the prestigious Verbier Festival, and collaborated in a duo recital with Eschenbach at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival which was broadcast live on the NDR German Radio Station. As a chamber musician, David has appeared with distinguished artists such as Emanuel Ax, Sarah Chang, Leonidas Kavakos, Johannes Moser, and Julien Quentin.

Born in New York in 1986 into a family of musical siblings, David began his musical studies on the violin and later on the viola. He continued to pursue both instruments at the pre-college divisions of Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music, Italy’s Accademia Chigiana, Switzerland’s International Music Academy, and the Verbier Festival & Academy. He studied with world-renowned pedagogues Seiji Ozawa, Robert Mann, Nobuko Imai, Roberto Diaz, Boris Belkin and Yuri Bashmet. In 2005, David was the First Prize winner of the Greenfield Young Artists Competition, and in 2006 he won First Prize at the Walter E. Naumburg Viola Competition. David was presented as a Presidential Scholar with the Presidential Gold Medal at a performance in The Kennedy Center. In June 2007, he became the first American and youngest protégé for the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative and was appointed the first instrumentalist protégé in the music discipline. His mentor, world-renowned violinist, violist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman comments about David: “I’ve seen few people his age with so much understanding.” For the past four years, David studied privately with Roberto Diaz, presently the President of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

David Aaron Carpenter holds an B.A. degree in Political Science from Princeton University.