
David Bourque has played clarinet and bass clarinet in the Toronto Symphony Orchestra since 1983. Prior to his appointment to the TSO clarinet section, David played in the orchestras of the
Stratford Festival,
Canadian Opera Company and
The National Ballet of Canada. He has been a guest with the
National Arts Centre Orchestra and
L'Orchestre Symphonie de Montréal. He plays regularly in the finest chamber music festivals in the world,
Festival of the Sound ((Parry Sound, ON), and the
Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival. David is considered one of the finest bass clarinetists in North America and is Canada's leading basset horn player.
Mr. Bourque's work in film and television sound recording includes many episodes of the re-makes of the television series
Alfred Hitchcock Presents, seven seasons on
Road to Avonlea and numerous episodes of
Street Legal. He is also heard in the Academy Award-winning Norman Jewison film,
Moonstruck , the Dan Ackroyd and Jack Lemmon film,
Getting Away with Murder, and the miniseries soundtracks
Texas and Larry McMurtry's The Streets of Laredo. David Bourque can also be heard in the film score recording of the music for the 1996 remake of
The Island of Dr. Moreau (directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Marlon Brando) and many made for TV movies including the CBC docudrama of the Avro Arrow story.
David is the editor of Northdale Music International's first editions of the Harmoniemusik of K. Anh. C. These editions will be identified as first editions in new the Köchel catalogue of the works of Mozart. The complete Harmoniemusik of K. Anh. C has been recorded by The Festival Winds, an all star cast of musicians including clarinetist James Campbell of Indiana University and hornist James Sommerville of the Boston Symphony for CBC records. He is the author of a DVD tutorial
Working the Single Reed and
The Bass Clarinetist's Workbook, an annotated guide to orchestral excerpts and he is published in a number of journals including
The Clarinet and the
Canadian Music Educator's Journal.
Mr. Bourque is a versatile and extensively recorded instrumental artist. His recording credits include numerous recordings with the Toronto Symphony, compact discs and radio broadcasts for CBC, the first recording of the Barenreiter edition of Mozart's
Serenade in B flat K. 361, "Gran Partita" , the Canadian Saxophone Quintet's premiere recording
Thanks for the Memories, Gary Kulesha's
Third Chamber Concerto for Bass Clarinet and Winds and
Mysterium Conjunctionis with clarinetist James Campbell. The latter are two of the five works that have been composed for Mr. Bourque by Gary Kulesha. David, James and Gary are mentioned in connection with the
Mysterium in
The Cambridge Guide to the Clarinet, ed. Colin Lawson.
David has taught in higher education since 1979. He has held positions at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music and the University of Western Ontario. In 2004-2005 he was visiting professor at Mount Allison University and in the spring of 2008 was an Associate Professor at the University of Prince Edward Island. He currently teaches clarinet, bass clarinet and coaches the winds of the university orchestra at the University of Toronto. David is a member of the teaching faculty of theNational Youth Orchestra of Canada.
David Bourque is a native Torontonian and is a graduate of University of Toronto’s the University of Western Ontario’s Faculty of Music.