David Shenton is an English born pianist, violinist, composer, and arranger based in New York City. David became a joint citizen of the UK / USA in 2015.

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Born in Rotherham in 1975, David was drawn to the beauty of musical scores, which he preferred to read over books with words. It wasn't soon after he started playing the violin at the age of 7 that he wrote his first music. Since then David has composed hundreds of works from small piano pieces to full-length operas.

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As pianist/music director David has worked with renowned members of the music profession in all genres, including Vanessa Williams, Tony Bennett, Zach Levi, Sierra Boggess, Denyce Graves, Alfie Bøe, Renée Fleming, Sherrill Milnes, Marilyn Maye, Liz Callaway, Sir André Previn, Michael Feinstein, Amanda McBroom, Katie Couric, Alan Menken, Stephen Schwartz and many more.

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David's proficiency in multiples genres has allowed him  to work at prestigious venues, in various guises, all over the world. He gave his Carnegie Hall début in 2014 when he conducted (from the piano) his own orchestra/big band in front of a sold out house. David's Jazz @ Lincoln Center début was at The Rose Theater as jazz pianist in 2008, and two years later he gave his classical piano début at Lincoln Center's Rubenstein Atrium performing Schumann and Chopin as part of the 200th year anniversary celebrations of these two composers. As a jazz pianist he continues to perform frequently at jazz clubs and larger venues in the USA.

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In 2014 Christine Steyer, as librettist, and Shenton, as composer, began writing Bellissima Opera’s Tales of Transcendence, an award-winning series of new operas exploring our shared humanity. The first, On Call: COVID-19 honoring healthcare workers, premiered in April. Future Perfect is the second, co-created with 1,300 local students. 

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David is one third of the popular musical group Empire Trio, that was commissioned by Lincoln Center to create a new show (to premiere at Lincoln Center) about the history of Italian popular music. Since that concert in 2010, Empire Trio has continued to tour extensively in the US, Canada and Europe with over 250 performances to date. In addition to creating Empire Trio, David and with his wife, soprano Erin Shields, created Uptown Girls, a dynamic vocal ensemble that also tours extensively around the USA.

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