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Short Bio:
Guitarist/composer David Occhipinti’s fourth CD featuring his own compositions, Forty Revolutions, was nominated for a 2007 Juno Award in the contemporary jazz category. David has also released two duo CD’s with saxophonist Mike Murley. Their first CD, Duologue, was nominated for a Juno Award in 2003.
David is beginning to make a name for himself as a composer and has received commissions to compose for solo artists, chamber groups and large ensembles.
David has performed all across Canada, in the U.S., Europe, Japan and in Italy where he lived for a short time. David’s development as an artist has been aided by the composition, recording and touring grants received from the Canada Council for the Arts, Chalmer’s Arts Fellowship, the Toronto Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, and the DFAIT.
David Occhipinti studied in New York with the legendary jazz guitarist Jim Hall during the mid 1990's. David presently teaches guitar and ensembles at the University of Toronto and Humber College.
Biography:
David Occhipinti was born in Toronto, Canada on December 26, 1966. David began playing guitar at age 13 and began composing at 16. He attended the Humber College Music Program in Toronto from 1984-87 (where he has been teaching guitar and ensembles since 2000 - David has also been teaching at the University of Toronto since 2002). In 1989, David’s career came to a turning point when he attended the Banff School of Fine Arts jazz workshop where Dave Holland was the artistic director.
In the early 1990’s David spent most of his time between studying in New York and performing in Italy. The Canada Council for the Arts funded his stays in New York where he studied privately with legendary guitarist Jim Hall. In 1994, David moved to Italy for nearly two years and performed extensively throughout the country and in neighbouring countries with his own groups and as a sideman.
In 1996 David returned to his native Canada and was chosen as one of ten winners in the “Guitars on Fire” contest held by the international trade publication Jazziz magazine. The jury included Jim Hall, John Patitucci and Lee Ritenour.
The following year David recorded his self-titled debut CD. The CD features ten original compositions and has been described by the press as: “exciting, original, intelligent, inventive...an excellent debut”. David recorded his second CD, Syzygy, in 1998 and it was released the following year. The CD features 10 of his compositions in trio and solo settings.
He began playing duo with Mike Murley in 1999 and in 2002 they released Duologue. Duologue was nominated for a Juno Award, a National Jazz Award and a Canadian Music “Indie”. Mike and David released their follow-up CD, Duologue Vol.2, in 2005.
David released his third group CD, Intersection, in November, 2003. The CD contains 10 original compositions and features David on guitar, Mike Murley on saxophone, Andrew Downing on bass and Terry Clarke on drums. "(Intersection)...It's definitely music for today, streamlined yet atmospheric...a listener hears the rare but gratifying combination of lyricism and cutting edge music." -Geoff Chapman - THE TORONTO STAR
In 2006, David was busy composing chamber music works and composed Four Pieces for String Quartet for the Madawaska String Quartet and Purple Sky for the Arraymusic Ensemble.
In October 2007 David released his latest quartet CD Forty Revolutions featuring 7 original compositions. Forty Revolutions was nominated for a 2007 Juno Award in the contemporary jazz category. David’s quartet was also nominated for ‘acoustic group of the year’ and David for ‘guitarist of the year’ at the 2008 National Jazz Awards. “It’s the type of music that doesn’t have any precedent so the four of us really create a sound that isn’t jazz, it isn’t classical, it isn’t folk, it’s just really good music.” -drummer Terry Clarke (in an interview with Renee Rosnes for CBC radio)
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