David Schnaufer
Encyclopedia
David Schnaufer was an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 folk musician. He is widely credited with restoring the popularity of the Appalachian dulcimer
Appalachian dulcimer
The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings. It is native to the Appalachian region of the United States...

.

Schnaufer was born in Hearne, Texas
Hearne, Texas
Hearne is a city in Robertson County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,690 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Bryan-College Station metropolitan area...

, and grew up in La Marque, Texas
La Marque, Texas
La Marque is a city in the U.S. state of Texas within the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the city population was 14,509...

. Schnaufer was an award winning dulcimer player and session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...

. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

 during the 1980s, and in 1995, accepted a position at Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University is a private research university located in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1873, the university is named for shipping and rail magnate "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided Vanderbilt its initial $1 million endowment despite having never been to the...

's Blair School of Music
Blair School of Music
The Blair School of Music provides undergraduate conservatory-style education in music performance, theory, and history at Vanderbilt University, a major research university located in Nashville, Tennessee...

, where he taught dulcimer as an associate adjunct professor. He established himself as one of the country's premier dulcimer players. He played the dulcimer on recordings with The Judds
The Judds
The Judds were an American country music duo composed of Naomi Judd and her daughter, Wynonna Judd. Signed to RCA Records in 1983, the duo released six studio albums between then and 1991. One of the most successful acts in country music history, The Judds won five Grammy Awards for Best Country...

, Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris is an American singer-songwriter and musician. In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including...

, Johnny Cash
Johnny Cash
John R. "Johnny" Cash was an American singer-songwriter, actor, and author, who has been called one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...

, and Chet Atkins
Chet Atkins
Chester Burton Atkins , known as Chet Atkins, was an American guitarist and record producer who, along with Owen Bradley, created the smoother country music style known as the Nashville sound, which expanded country's appeal to adult pop music fans as well.Atkins's picking style, inspired by Merle...

, among others. One of his earliest recordings was on Mark O'Connor
Mark O'Connor
Mark O'Connor is an American bluegrass, jazz, country and classical violinist fiddler, composer and music teacher. O'Connor's music is wide-ranging, critically acclaimed, and he has received numerous awards for both his playing and his composition...

's 1988 album Elysian Forest. O'Connor had initially sought out Schnaufer after hearing him play an instrumental version of the Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell, CC is a Canadian musician, singer songwriter, and painter. Mitchell began singing in small nightclubs in her native Saskatchewan and Western Canada and then busking in the streets and dives of Toronto...

 song "Both Sides Now." Schnaufer also released several solo albums of dulcimer music.

He had many students, one of which was the singer Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...

.http://www.vanderbilt.edu/News/register/Apr01_02/story9.html

Schnaufer died in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...

 at Alive Hospice, after a battle with lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...

.

Discography

  • Elysian Forest (Mark O'Connor, 1988)
  • Dulcimer Player Deluxe (SFL, 1989)
  • Dulcimer sessions (SFL, 1992)
  • Tennessee music box (Rivertime Records, 1996)
  • Delcimore (The Orchard, 2000)
  • Uncle Dulcimer (Delcimore Recordings, 2001)
  • Appalachian Mandolin and Dulcimer:Music (Soundart Recordings, 2006)--recorded with Butch Baldassari.

External links

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