David is the recipient of the International Performing Arts for Youth “Lifetime Achievement Award for Sustained Excellence”. Mr. Gonzalez was named a Joseph Campbell Foundation Fellow and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for “Unique Theatrical Experience” for his production of The Frog Bride at Broadway’s New Victory Theater. He has created numerous productions, including the critically acclaimed ¡Sofrito! with The Latin Legends Band, and MytholoJazz, both of which enjoyed sold-out runs at New Victory Theater. David completed Wounded Splendor, a two-year residency and commission from the University of Maryland that celebrates the natural world and our responsibility to it. Sleeping Beauty, featuring Bach’s Goldberg Variations, premiered at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. David was a featured performer at the National Storytelling Festival, and has performed at festivals in Spain, Switzerland, France, Costa Rica, Norway, Puerto Rico, and throughout the United States. He also appeared for three seasons at the Royal National Theatre in London. Mr. Gonzalez was the Artistic Director for The Alliance for a New Humanity, an international service organization dedicated to peace and sustainability. The Man of the House was commissioned by and premiered at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Mr. Gonzalez’ work Double Crossed: The Saga of the St. Louis toured nationally, including a run at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1998. The same year, David was honored with the Helen Hayes Performing Artist of the Year Award. As If the Past Were Listening, a suite of creation myths, was selected for Lincoln Center Institute’s repertory for three seasons. David’s Latin Jazz poetry project City of Dreams was commissioned by the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center and premiered at La Mama Theater. He wrote Finding North, a one-man play based on Underground Railroad hero John Parker that was commissioned by the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park and performed at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center; Aesop Bops! and co-wrote Mariel, an Afro-Cuban musical set in the turbulent times of the Mariel boatlift from Cuba, with Grammy-nominated songwriter John Forster. Mariel is the winner of the Macy’s “New Play Prize for Young Audiences.” David is also the author of the opera libretto Rise for Freedom! produced at the Cincinnati Opera, and Jimi and Mr. B, a musical commissioned by the Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Center. His long form poem Oh Hudson in collaboration with violin virtuoso Mark O’Connor commemorates the Hudson quadricentennial, and his version of The Carnival of the Animals with classical piano virtuoso Frederic Chui, has toured nationally. David received his doctorate in Music Therapy from New York University and taught there for ten years.

David’s poetry was featured at Lincoln Center’s Out-of-Doors Festival, Bill Moyers’s documentary Fooling with Words on PBS, NPR’s All Things Considered, and the World Science Festival among many other venues. His poetry book, Soundings, is available wherever books are sold. He was the host of New York Kids on WNYC for eight seasons. He earned a doctoral degree from New York University in Music Therapy and has conducted numerous seminars, workshops, and lectures, and worked as a music therapist in clinical and educational institutions. He is the Artistic Director of Crisalida Communications, an organization that supports communities through arts outreach. Online at www.crisalidacom.com

Current projects:

The Effects of Gravity – astrophysics meets performance art

A Spork in the Road – environmental work for kids

Jessye Norman’s Legacy: Sissieretta Jones – operatic musical

Hard Dinero – based on immigrants’ stories