This week’s spotlighted MHS graduate is David Whitman from the class of 1999. He graciously took the time to answer my questions online.
We all love to hear what our alumni’s strongest memories are from their years at MHS. Among his positive memories are Badger Boys State, Junior Varsity Baseball and working in the dish room at UW-Stout during his freshman year in high school. David also worked at Lammers and had a Leader-Telegram paper route while at MHS. But he notes that making and spending time with so many great friends was one of his main highlights.
Yet David’s primary memories strongly revolved around his participation in various music programs at school and within the community. As he stated in this interview, “My junior year in high school saw me choosing music over computers, and I set my heart on becoming a musician.”
Following through on that desire, David participated in Band, Jazz Band, Marching Band, Concert Band, Pep Band, and the Ludington Guard Band. In addition, he was in a punk band, played a drum set for MHS musicals, as well as in musicals at the Mabel Tainter Theater. As if that wasn’t enough, David toured with the UW-Stout Vocal Jazz Ensemble and won the Esprit de Corps Award at the state Marching Band Competition. It’s fair to say that he actively began the pursuit of his life’s dream during his time at Menomonie High School!
When it came time to choose the next step after graduation, David stated that while in high school, UW-Eau Claire Jazz Band had won awards from DownBeat magazine for Best College Big Band. That’s when he set his sights on UW-Eau Claire. He had also received a scholarship from a local music booster organization to attend the Shell Lake Indianhead Arts Center Summer Jazz Camp the summer before he started ninth grade and had connected with UW-Eau Claire music faculty during that summer and following summers.
In David’s words, “The summer between high school and college was spent touring the country with a Drum and Bugle Corps from Madison called Capitol Sound, which took me away from high school two weeks early and caused me to miss high school graduation.
“When I arrived at UW-Eau Claire as a freshman there were 6 jazz bands. I auditioned into the very last band. I would attend the rehearsals for the top jazz bands so the faculty and students knew I meant business. The summer after my freshman year I auditioned to win a job playing in a band at ValleyFair Family Amusement Park in the Minneapolis/St. Paul region.”
“That summer while others were playing video games in the trailer between shows, I first would practice through the entire George Lawrence Stone book Stick Control every day. After working in that band and practicing hard I auditioned in to Jazz II the next semester, and Jazz I the semester after that—a band that I played in until I graduated in 2005.
“At UW-Eau Claire I was very active in all the music ensembles, and I supported myself by working as a musician in the area. Before graduating I had played professionally with or at The Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, 5-By-Design, The Great American History Theater, Valley Fair, as well as up to 7 nights a week in bars, VFWs, and clubs in the area with jazz musicians, wedding bands, and the like, including for classic acts like the then 90+ year old trumpeter and jazz band leader Conrad Johnstad.
“At UW-Eau Claire I wrote a student research grant to fund study in the NYC area with Dave Brubeck’s legendary drummer, Joe Morello. I stretched the funding out by driving and studied with Joe regularly for one academic year.
“After graduation, I auditioned successfully to play in the jazz and show band on a Carnival Cruise Ship. While working as a musician on the Liberty I was offered a position as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at Kansas State University, where my duties would include writing for and teaching the drum line for their marching band, and working with the bands and percussion areas broadly, including teaching private lessons, percussion ensemble, and so forth. I worked very hard for the band director, helping to run a gigantic band program, as well as manage the local Manhattan Municipal Band (like the Ludington Guard Band). K-state is in Manhattan, KS, affectionately dubbed ‘the little apple.’ “
“While at K-State, I received the Outstanding Musician award from the top concert ensemble there, received a unique special recognition award for outstanding service to the marching band, performed a marimba concerto with their Wind Ensemble, published my first article in a journal as well as a marching percussion arrangement, and served on the Graduate Student Senate.”
“My vision for being a professional player in an urban area was solidified at this time, and to pursue this I felt I needed to further develop my skills—this led to me immediately pursuing my Doctorate in Music Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Southern Mississippi right after graduating with my Masters in the same from K-State.
“Once again, I was able to attend on a full tuition scholarship and Graduate Teaching Assistantship. After two required years of residency coursework for the degree, I moved to San Diego, CA to hunker down and research and compose my dissertation, which was two lecture recitals and corresponding analysis.”
David earned his Doctorate in the spring of 2011 and was teaching at San Diego State University. Following true to form, during the 14 years that he has been there, David also has been involved in developing and teaching many different courses. Meanwhile he was also continuing to actively pursue his performance dreams.
In 2016, he self-released his debut album as a jazz musician, Oh, Clara! The album won Best Album: Jazz Instrumental at the Independent Music Awards at the Lincoln Center. followed by three subsequent highly-reviewed albums—Soul Flow (2019), Oh, Hugo! (2022), and Ode to Joe (2023)—dedicated to Joe Morello. Oh, Clara!, Soul Flow, and Oh, Hugo! each were nominated in the first round for GRAMMYs in the jazz area, with Oh, Clara! receiving the most nominations for GRAMMYs at 4 – Best Instrumental Jazz Album, Best Engineered Album – Non-Classical, Best Instrumental Composition for the song “Quiet,” and Best Improvised Jazz Solo for Geoffrey Keezer on the song “Struttin’ Home.”
In addition to the jazz albums and concerts, David has performed with the San Diego City Ballet, Pacific Lyric Opera, The San Diego Symphony Orchestra, The Temecula Symphony Orchestra, The San Diego Winds, The Who, Weird Al Yankovich, California Chamber Orchestra, many world premieres of significant works (including Broadway shows Bhangin’ It and The Outsiders), Johnny Mathis, Broadway tours as a local hire in San Diego for Wicked(2xs), Ain’t Too Proud, Anastasia, Alladin, and The King and I, Roger Nierenberg, The National Strauss Symphony of America, Tommy with the original cast and Peter Townsend, Opera Neo Festival Orchestra, The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy Symphony Orchestras, Meridian Symphony Orchestra, Geoffrey Keezer, Francisco Torres, Sal Lozano, Bob Sheppard, and many other amazing artists.”
‘In July 2024 my first book The Daily Drummer was published. It has frequently been on the Amazon best seller lists in percussion and jazz. In 2019 UW-Eau Claire awarded me their highest alumni honor, a President’s Award for “success in one’s chosen field.” It really has been an honor and I aspire to continue to serve the community through music.”
“I have enjoyed traveling the world and performing. It has been a privilege to be able to be able to be a percussionist and drummer. My home is in San Diego. My wife Nobuko is from Tokyo and we have been able to spend a good bit of time there. My children are even able to enroll in school there on summer vacations from school in America. I’m thankful for my family—my wife Nobuko, my two children Hugo and Clara, my parents Marvin and Rhonda, and my brother Kurt. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
