MINISTRY OF CULTURE, GENDER, ENTERTAINMENT AND SPORT (CGES)
NATIONAL REGISTRY OF ENTERTAINMENT AND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES
PRACTITIONERS (E-Registry)

David Henderson grew up in Hartford City, Indiana, and has degrees from the University of Michigan and the Juilliard School. In 1980, he gave his Carnegie Recital Hall solo debut as a winner of the East and West Artists competition, with the New York Times stating “an exceptionally accomplished instrumentalist with something to say, his work is poised, cultivated, and expressive.” In 1981, he received a first prize in saxophone from the Conservatoire de Bordeaux as a recipient of a Fulbright-ITT grant to study in France. Since moving to San Francisco in 1988, he has played regularly with the San Francisco Symphony, including several tours and three recordings under maestro Michael Tilson Thomas. He has also toured with the BBC Symphony under Andrew Davis and performed with the New World Symphony, the San Francisco Opera and Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet and Orchestra, and the St. Petersburg (Russia) Philharmonic. He has appeared as soloist with the Oakland/East Bay Symphony. In 1989, he joined the San Francisco Saxophone Quartet as tenor saxophonist and keyboard player. Starting out as street musicians in downtown San Francisco, the group was discovered on the street by the president of Angel/EMI records in 1990, and has since recorded four CDs and toured most of the 50 states as well as Japan. In 2005, he joined the Premiere Saxophone Quartet, artists-in-residence at San José State University. He has worked as a musician at Disney World and Great America theme parks, and played both on and off-Broadway during ten years in New York, including the original productions of Nunsense