Concertmaster of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra under music director David Robertson, David Halen is recognized as one of the most esteemed musical leaders of an American orchestra. In addition to his duties with the orchestra, in September, 2012 he joined the faculty at the University of Michigan, and has many successful students across the country. In summers he is a concertmaster and violin faculty at the Aspen Music Festival and School in Colorado.
As a young man, he didn’t have to look far for his musical influences: he began playing the violin at the age of six, and earned his bachelor’s degree at the age of 18 studying with his father, the late Walter Halen. In that same year, he won the Music Teachers National Association Competition and was granted a Fulbright scholarship for study at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, the youngest recipient ever to have been honored with this prestigious award.
He served as assistant concertmaster with the Houston Symphony under Sergiu Comissiona and Christoph Eschenbach between 1982 and 1991. He joined the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra where he was officially named concertmaster in September 1995, under music directors Leonard Slatkin and Hans Vonk. He has also soloed in most of the major concerti in St. Louis, taught, and served as concertmaster at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, WDR Cologne, San Francisco, Detroit, and Toronto Symphonies, the Manhattan School of Music, Indiana University, Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and the New World Symphony in Miami. He is artistic director of the Missouri River Festival of the Arts in Boonville. David Halen plays on a 1753 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin, made in 1753.
