Dr. David Evenson
Piano, Department Head
Office: Music Building Annex 278
Phone: (985) 549-2184
Email: devenson@selu.edu
A native of Minneapolis, Minnesota, David Evenson began piano study at the age of 9 under James D. Johnson. He received the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees at Indiana University where he studied for six years with the late Cuban-American virtuoso Jorge Bolet, and in 1982 he completed the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Arizona as a student of Ozan Marsh. Other musical study included two summers at L'école des beaux arts in Fontainebleau, France (performing in the master classes of Robert Casadesus), and two summers at the Chautauqua Festival Music School in New York. Dr. Evenson is Professor of Music at Southeastern Louisiana University, having joined the faculty in 1979. In 1992 he received the Southeastern Louisiana University President's Award for Excellence in Artistic Activity, and he has served since 1994 as the Head of the Department of Music and Dramatic Arts.A recently released compact disc recording of chamber music for saxophone and piano (Crystal Records 652) features Dr. Evenson with saxophonist Lawrence Gwozdz, with whom he has performed on Wisconsin Public Radio, Los Angeles Public Radio and Prague Radio. In 2000 MMC Recordings released a compact disc recording of Southeastern Louisiana University colleague Stephen Suber's Enchantments: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, with Evenson as piano soloist with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gerard Schwarz, conducting (MMC 2072).
As a soloist, Evenson has been heard with the Louisiana Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, the Louisiana Sinfonietta, the Mississippi Symphony Chamber Orchestra, the Wellesley Symphony in Boston, the Baton Rouge Symphony, and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. He has performed chamber music on a tour of Argentina and Uruguay and in Weill Recital Hall in New York City. A past contributor to The Piano Quarterly, Dr. Evenson is also a co-author of a beginning piano textbook for college students, 24-Karat Piano Skills: A New Approach for Exploring Music (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 1993).
Click here to hear Dr. Evenson perform Fandango, the first movement of Enchantments: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra written by SLU composer Dr. Stephen Suber (MMC Recordings 2072)