David Ballou can be heard in a wide variety of settings. He has toured with such artists as Clark Terry, Sheila Jordan, Dewey Redman, Bobby Previte (Miles Davis Festival in Vienna 1997), LaMonte Young (American Pioneers Series, Barbican Center, London, UK), Maria Schneider (European Tour 1999, Free Jazz Festival Brazil 1998, France & Italy 1997), Michael Formanek, Woody Herman, Cameron Brown (Germany, Holland, Belgium 1997 with The Hear and Now), and Orange Then Blue. Mr. Ballou also performed with Joe Lovano, Dave Liebman, Mat Maneri (2000 Vision Festival, New York), George Garzone, Billy Hart, Kenny Werner, Jay McShann, Gunther Schuller, Rahib Abou-Khalil (Köln, Germany), Michael Formanek's Northern Exposure (2000 Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival), and Milt Hinton. Recently, he recorded the theme for The NewsHour Featuring Jim Lehrer and is one of the substitute players re-creating the Harry James "Sing, Sing, Sing" solo for the Broadway musical Fosse. He recorded three CDs for the SteepleChase label: Amongst Ourselves (a quartet featuring Tony Malaby, Jeff Williams and Michael Formanek); Volition (a trio featuring Cameron Brown and Jeff Williams); and The Floating World (with George Colligan, Doug Weiss, and Darren Beckett).
Mr. Ballou received a BM from Berklee College of Music in 1987 and a MA from the University of New Hampshire in 1992. He has studied trumpet with Laurie Frink, Greg Hopkins, Jeffrey Stout, Tim Hagans, Charles Schluetter, and Robert Stibler. Mr. Ballou has studied improvisation with Joe Lovano, Kenny Werner, George Garzone, Jerry Bergonzi, and Hal Crook. He has studied composition and arranging with Herb Pomeroy and Neil Sir, and continues the study of Schoenberg counterpoint and harmony with Paul Caputo.
David Ballou teaches trumpet and improvisation as well as Schoenberg counterpoint and harmony to students of all levels. In 1999 and 2000 he was a faculty member at the Banff Centre in Banff, Alberta, Canada for the Jazz Workshop and has taught at the Maine Jazz Camp since 1991.