David Coffin
Encyclopedia
David Coffin is a folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 musician specializing in early music
Early music
Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...

 and sea music, based in Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester is a city on Cape Ann in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is part of Massachusetts' North Shore. The population was 28,789 at the 2010 U.S. Census...

. He is the song leader for the Cambridge
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...

 Revels music programs and is the director of an organization that conducts musical tours of Boston Harbor
Boston Harbor
Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeast.-History:...

. He also puts on musically oriented shows for local elementary schools about Renaissance music and life at sea.

Coffin is possessed of a rich bass-baritone voice and plays various types of recorders and whistles, in addition to archaic instruments like the shawm, racket or ghemshorn. A very personable performer, his real talent is in getting his whole audience singing along. Coffin also comes from a musical background: His father, Rev. William Sloane Coffin
William Sloane Coffin
William Sloane Coffin, Jr. was an American liberal Christian clergyman and long-time peace activist. He was ordained in the Presbyterian church and later received ministerial standing in the United Church of Christ....

, studied to be a concert pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

 with Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...

 in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, his grandfather was pianist Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...

, and his great-grandfather was Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 conductor Emil Mlynarski
Emil Mlynarski
Emil Szymon Młynarski was a Polish conductor, violinist, composer, and pedagogue.-Life:Młynarski was born in Kibarty , Russian Empire, now in Lithuania. He studied violin with Leopold Auer, and composition with Anatoly Lyadov and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov...

.

He works at Save the Harbor/ Save the Bay over the past 9 years. He leads the All Access Boston Harbor youth program, which brings kids from all over Massachusetts to go to George's Island or Spectacle Island
Spectacle Island, Massachusetts
Spectacle Island is an island in Boston Harbor, situated some offshore of downtown Boston, Massachusetts. The island has a varied history, and today is a public park, forming part of the Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area...

.

Discography

In addition to contributing to a variety of collaborative CDs for Revels Records and North Star Records, local New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...

 recording labels, Coffin has also recorded three solo albums: Flight of Time, Nantucket Sleighride and Safe in the Harbour, all of which feature traditional and maritime music, some of which is taken from the singing of Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl
Ewan MacColl was an English folk singer, songwriter, socialist, actor, poet, playwright, and record producer. He was married to theatre director Joan Littlewood, and later to American folksinger Peggy Seeger. He collaborated with Littlewood in the theatre and with Seeger in folk music...

 and Stan Rogers
Stan Rogers
Stanley Allison "Stan" Rogers was a Canadian folk musician and songwriter.Rogers was noted for his rich, baritone voice and his finely crafted, traditional-sounding songs which were frequently inspired by Canadian history and the daily lives of working people, especially those from the fishing...

.

External links

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