David B. Reck earned a B.A. in music at the University of Houston; a Masters of Music at the University of Texas; and his doctorate degree from Wesleyan University. In the 1960s, he was active in the new music scene in New York City with performances of his compositions at Town Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Museum of Modern Art, and at festivals throughout Europe. With a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, he enrolled in the College of Carnatic Music (Madras, India) in 1968 and began a lifetime of study of South Indian classical music in the Karaikudi tradition of veena. An accomplished veena player in the Karaikudi tradition, he has concertized on three continents. A former Guggenheim Fellow, he has served on numerous committees for the Guggenheim Foundation, the Broadcast Music, Inc. annual composition competition, the Fulbright Scholarship Committee, and the National Endowment for the Arts. At Amherst College he initiated courses in Asian music and culture, film, ethnomusicology, classical and popular music and culture, J.S. Bach, the Beatles, world music composition, modernism, and songwriting, along with establishing a pioneering world music concert series. Publications include Music of the Whole Earth, and Musical Instruments: Southern Area in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: South Asia: The Indian Subcontinent, plus numerous articles on South India's classical music and on the influence of India's music on popular and classical music in the U.S. and Europe.
