David Halliday’s musical persona is characterized by passionate enthusiasm, whether performing, composing, arranging, producing, or educating.
Halliday has performed with a wide variety of top artists, including: David Archuleta, Sarah Uriatre Berry, Randy Brecker, Kristin Chenoweth, Jeff Coffin, Bill Cunliffe, Eddie Daniels, Linda Eder, Kurt Elling, Ben Folds, The Four Tops, Galactic, Dizzy Gillespie, Larry Goldings, Josh Groban, Grace Kelly (saxophonist), Will Kennedy, Joe LaBarbera, Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Arturo Sandoval, Diane Schuur, The Temptations, Stanley Turrentine, The Utah Symphony, Victor Wooten, and many more. He has performed as the opening act for Diana Krall, B.B. King, George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic, Jon Batiste and Stay Human, and Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe. His performance travels include 46 of the 50 United States as well as eight European countries, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, and Puerto Rico.
An avid composer and arranger, Halliday’s original compositions have aired in 24 countries worldwide and on numerous American networks such as: CBS, ESPN, Fox Sports, HBO, MLB Network, NFL Network, Showtime, and many more.
He has performed on the soundtracks of a wide variety of television shows, music videos, and DVDs including Josh Groban’s Awake Live, Saturday Night Live(NBC), Touched by an Angel (ABC), Everwood (WB), NBA on ABC (theme), and on commercials for Corona Light, Subway,Meadow Gold, and many more. He performed with Chester E. Smith in Washington, D.C. for an internationally aired performance in celebration of Smith’s winning BET's (Black Entertainment Television's) Jazz Discovery Award.
An active recording artist and record producer, Halliday has produced or co-produced 18 albums and appears as a sideman on over 60 more. He has also recorded numerous recordings of Broadway musicals available for rent from The MT Pit. Halliday founded his record label, Lone Peak Sound, in 2003, which currently has 11 titles. He produced New York-based saxophone phenom Chase Baird’s debut CD Crosscurrent, which received 3.5 stars in the March 2011 issue of Down Beat magazine.
Halliday holds a BM in Saxophone Performance with an Emphasis in Jazz Studies from Brigham Young University and an MM in Jazz Performance and Composition from the University of Utah where he was the jazz area's Teacher's Assistant from 2004-06.
Halliday is currently the Director of Jazz and Popular Music Studies at Westminster College and Associate Adjunct Professor of Saxophone at the University of Utah (both in Salt Lake City). He directs the Westminster Jazz Ensemble and arranges the majority of their repertoire. He has also taught at Brigham Young University (Provo, UT) and Snow College (Ephraim, UT). Halliday served as a staff member of the Jackson Hole Music Experience’s Rock ‘n’ Roll camp in Jackson, WY for several years and has given clinics at over 30 universities, colleges, high schools, and middle schools in the mountain west.
Halliday’s roots stretch back to northern California. Born in Sacramento and raised in Vacaville, he studied with multi-Grammy Award-winning saxophone legend Joe Henderson at Henderson’s home in San Francisco while still a teen. David later studied with Tony Dagradi at Loyola University in New Orleans and Dr. Ray Smith at Brigham Young University.
His professional career began in Sacramento with guitarist/singer/songwriter Early Times, in San Jose with organist Chester E. Smith and Blue Note recording artist Eddie Gale, and in the Napa Valley with Delbert Bump and the Braxton Brothers, all while David was still in high school. In 1994 David moved to New Orleans and joined the legendary funk band Galactic, propelled by Stanton Moore's uniquely explosive drumming. He toured with Oakland's soul/blues diva E.C. Scott and her band Smoke in 1997-98 across the United States and in Athens, Greece.
Halliday has won such prestigious awards as the (only) Outstanding College Performer Award at the Reno International Jazz Festival in 1996, and the Outstanding Collegiate Tenor Saxophone Soloist award at the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival in Moscow, Idaho each year, from 1999-2002.
Halliday is currently one of the most in-demand saxophonists and clinicians in the Mountain West, and performs worldwide with Party Crashers, No Limits, Metro Music Club, Marmalade Hill, and his own groups. He currently leads several bands including: The Number Ones (TNOs), The Jazz Vespers Quartet (JVQ), The New Orleans Project, and more. He is a co-musical director of the Jazz Vespers Concert series, a 30-year-old tradition that takes place on the last eight Sundays before Christmas at the First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City. Halliday and the JVQ host the Gracie’s Monday Night Jazz Jam every Monday night in downtown Salt Lake City where they have maintained residency since Spring of 2014. He has performed the national anthem at two Utah Jazz NBA games and a Real Salt Lake MLS game.