David Gonzalez - Biography

Storyteller/musician/poet/actor/therapist/educator and Doctor of Arts, David Gonzalez, was nominated for a 2006 Drama Desk Award for “Unique Theatrical Experience” for his production of The Frog Bride at Broadway’s New Victory Theater. He has created numerous productions including the critically acclaimed ¡Sofrito! and MytholoJazz, both of which enjoyed sold-out runs at New Victory Theater. His work Double Crossed: The Saga of the St. Louis, was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution’s Discovery Theater and has toured nationally, including a run at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. In 1998 he was honored with the Helen Hayes Performing Artist of the Year Award.   As If The Past Were Listening, a suite of creation myths, was selected for the Lincoln Center Institute’s repertory for three seasons (2002 – 2004). David also wrote The Secret of the Ceiba Tree, a community-based multi-media work with the support of a Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Arts Partners grant. With support from the National Endowment for the Arts he wrote and starred in Finding North, a one-man play based on Underground Railroad hero John Parker, which premiered at Tony-Award winning Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. The Frog Bride recently enjoyed an extended run at The Philadelphia Theater Company. David recently completed Rise for Freedom!, a libretto commissioned by the Cincinnati Opera for their 2007 season.  Mariel, an Afro-Cuban musical co-written with Grammy-nominated songwriter John Forster, is set at the turbulent times of the Mariel boat-lift from Cuba in 1981.  Mariel, winner of the Macy’s “New Play Prize for Young Audiences”, was commissioned by the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, and premiered in March 2007. He is currently working on two commissions from the Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Center; “Jimbo and Mr. B” - a multi-media journey through The State of the Arts, and “Hudson”, a suite of poems to commemorate the beauty of the river and Henry Hudson’s navigation of it, with music by Mark O’Connor, Don Byron, and DBR.

City of Dreams, a Latin-jazz/spoken-word project featuring Grammy-nominated drummer Bobby Sanabria, received excellent press notices for their debut CD and as well as a generous commissioning grant from the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland which enabled a world premiere staging at La MaMa E.T.C.. Mr. Gonzalez' poetry has been featured at Lincoln Center's Out-of-Doors Festival, Bill Moyers' documentary Fooling with Words on PBS, and NPR's All Things Considered. He was the host of New York Kids on WNYC for eight seasons and is a contributor to Studio 360, on NPR. 

Mr. Gonzalez received his doctorate in Music Therapy from New York University's School of Education. His dissertation, Mythopoeic Music Therapy (1992), focused on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to examine the possibilities of uniting creative expression and active imagination within the therapy experience. He taught at NYU for ten years and has conducted numerous seminars, workshops and lectures at colleges and universities here and abroad. David worked as a music therapist for twenty years in clinical and educational institutions throughout the New York metropolitan area. As a guitarist he is a long-time accompanist to pioneering jazz vocalist Lisa Sokolov, having appeared with her on numerous concert stages including the Montreaux Jazz Festival, The Vision Festival, and the Knitting Factory. www.davidgonzalez.com