About Dave

WOODWINDS, BAGPIPES, STEEL DRUM

Dave Becker’s academic career spans college jazz ensembles, applied studio teaching, improvisation, arranging, recording arts and music appreciation courses, clinician appearances at national conferences, online course development and instruction, recruitment, and high school big band direction. His career as an arranger includes everything from small and large jazz ensembles, to musical theatre, marching band, symphonic band, wind ensemble, and symphony orchestra. And his career as a performing musician includes extensive studio work as a multi-instrumentalist, appearances as featured soloist with jazz and classical ensembles, and performances with some of the biggest names in music, including Wynton Marsalis, Randy Brecker, Manhattan Transfer, The Temptations, and many others. This sprawling resume embodies and models the diverse skillsets required of professional musicians in the 21 st century.

Becker earned his undergraduate degree in Music Education at the University of Florida before embarking on a professional career that would continue to develop the diversity of his skill set. Following stints as a bandleader, musician, and arranger for Princess Cruise Lines, Cunard Cruise Lines, Universal Studios and Disney, he settled on the West Coast teaching applied woodwinds and recording arts at Cuesta College then later joining the faculty of California Polytechnic State University as well. Becker became an in-demand studio player and bandleader along California’s central coast, writing arrangements for the San Luis Obispo Symphony’s Pops concerts, arranging, directing and performing in a production of West Side Story with the San Luis Obispo Civic Ballet, and performing and recording Broadway shows for the PCPA Repertory Theatre Company in Santa Maria, CA.

Becker’s drive to stay at the forefront of the technologies that continue to revolutionize every facet of the music industry led him to return to the University of Florida for graduate studies. In addition
to playing lead alto in the University of Florida Jazz Ensemble, writing arrangements for the UF Marching Band, and teaching Jazz Arranging and Applied Jazz Saxophone as part of his studies under department chair Scott Wilson, Becker was deeply involved in the university’s three-year-long endeavor to create a musical database as part of the State of Florida Educators for Arts Assessment K-12. He wrote, arranged, and recorded more than 300 pieces of music illustrating various styles of jazz, pop, rock, ethnic, and world music for the project through the University’s Digital Worlds Institute. This work displays the ultimate integration of the many skills Becker has
developed and serves as the perfect example of career diversification for the students that he seeks to inspire; it also allowed him to respond to the COVID-19 crisis when his creation of virtual choir videos for Cal Poly, Cuesta College, Allan Hancock College, and a variety of local school ensembles allowed countless students to continue their group educational experiences.

Following his graduation from the University of Florida with a Master of Music degree in Music Education in 2014, Becker returned to California and is now on faculty at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly), Cuesta College, and Allan Hancock College. He is the Director of Jazz Ensemble and a Lecturer of Jazz Styles at Cal Poly, and teaches applied music, music appreciation (World Music, Jazz, Rock & Roll) and Recording Arts Studio Application at Cuesta
College. He also teaches music theory and music appreciation at Allan Hancock College and music appreciation at the California Men’s Colony (CMC). Becker is currently pursuing an additional Masters degree from the University of Florida (online) in Digital Art and Science.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Dave Becker continues to amass performance credits that, to date, include Wynton Marsalis, Wayne Bergeron, Eric Marienthal, Sal Lazano, Pete Christlieb, Gordon Goodwin, Bobby Shew, Andy Martin, Bernie Dresel, Bob McChesney, Dianne Shuur, Ernie Watts, Sam Rivers, John Allred, Ron Miles, Matt Cattingub, Jack Jones, Jeff Miley, James Miley, George Stone, Bob Sheppard, Marcus Printup, Joe Barati, Manhattan Transfer, The Temptations, Marvin Hamlish, and many more. In March 2024, Becker will coordinate and direct the Young Jazz Scholarship Concert for the San Luis Obispo Jazz Federation.