David Courtney is a writer, musician, and teacher of Indian music. He has also been a progressive political activist.
| This book is available around the world |
|---|
Check your local Amazon. More Info.
|
He was born in 1953 in Houston, Texas. After his lower education, he went to Texas A&M University in 1972 to study Bio Engineering. However midway through this training he switched to music. In this regard he moved to the San Francisco Bay area and enrolled in the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1974. Here his teachers included the late Ali Akbar Khan and Zakir Hussain.
He moved to India in 1976 to continue his musical training. There he spent a number of years learning tabla under the late Ustad Shaik Dawood Khan of Hyderabad. He is also well versed in dilruba, and esraj. For these instruments, he received his initial training under Sayed-ur-Rahman of Hyderabad. He has also received training in santur under the late Hasaan Mohd., and sarangi under Mohd. Aslam Khan.
He married Doordarshan vocalist N. Chandrakantha in 1978. They moved to the US in 1980.
He has extensive performance background. He has performed on stage, TV, disk, and radio, in India, Europe and the United States. Along with his wife, he composed the theme music for several radio and TV programs. He has accompanied many great musicians including Ashish Khan, Lakshmi Shankar, and Pandit Jasraj. He was also active in the fusion group “Vani”
He is well versed in the academic side of music. During the 80s he received great acclaim in academic circles for his pioneering work in the application of computers to Indian music. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the subject of Indian music (see bibliography below) . His articles have appeared in “Modern Drummer” and “Percussive Notes”. Along with his wife Chandra, he was given an award of recognition for outstanding contributions to the arts by the American Telugu Association. In 2009, he and his wife were designated as “Cultural Jewels of India” by the Indian Cultural Centre of Houston. In 2015 He and Chandra were both given the prestigious “Sunshine Award”.
He is very active today in musical activities. He has several CDs to his credit and has performed for several films. He is also very active in producing and directing musical videos, some of which have won international awards.
David was also politically active. He spent a number of years engaged in street-level activism, then moved into the Democratic Party. From there he shifted to the Green Party, where he made two unsuccessful bids for the Texas State Senate (2012, 2014). He also served two years as the Treasurer for the Texas State Green Party.
Bibliography
- An Introduction to Tabla (out of print)
- Elementary North Indian Vocal: Vol 1
- Elementary North Indian Vocal: Vol. 2
- Learning the Tabla – 1
- Learning the Tabla – 2
- Fundamentals of Tabla
- Advanced Theory of Tabla (out of print)
- Manufacture and Repair of Tabla
- Learning the Sitar
- The Music of South Asia
- Focus on the Kaidas of Tabla
- An American in Hyderabad: Life in India in the 1970s
- The History of Valhalla: Being a Study of the Rice Graduate Student Lounge From its Humblest Beginnings in the Year of Our Lord One-Thousand-Nine-Hundred-and-Seventy to the Present and all the Other Wah-Dah-Doo-Dah