The "Dulcimers for David" project is the brainchild of Deb Porter, who was a close friend of dulcimer legend David Schnaufer. When David passed away in 2006, Deb wanted to come up with a way to keep both his memory and his vision alive in the dulcimer world. She came up with the idea to start a project to get mt. dulcimers in the hands of as many kids as possible, which was something that was always important to David. She started by creating a compilation CD, for which she solicited cuts from friends and students of David, and used it as a fundraiser. Deb was able to work out an agreement with McSpadden dulcimers to purchase instruments from them "at cost". A few years after that first CD, she created a second volume "Dulcimers for David, Too", which also includes a few previously unreleased tracks/recordings of David himself.
In 2020, Dave Haas donated a video of a concert performance of David he had recorded in 1999 (Super-8/VHS). The Dulcimers for David project has re-mastered that amazing video onto DVD and now offers that for sale as well.
The project has also have been given a limited number of copies of 2 other DVDs to sell for the D4D project. The first is a documentary about the "Nashville Dulcimer Quartet" that was created/directed by David along with 4 of his students from the Blair School of Music in Nashville where he was an "adjunct professor". That film was made by the local PBS affiliate station in Nashville in 2004, and features interviews with David and the rest of the quartet, along with clips from one of their concert performances. The other one is titled "Wax", and is another documentary about a project David and the Grand Old Dulcimer Club was invited to participate in to record a dulcimer club session on an original Edison wax cylinder recording machine.
100% of the profits from the sales of all of these products go to purchase dulcimers to give to kids who have expressed an interest in learning to play, but who may not have any other way of getting an instrument of their own.
In recent years, other builders have also donated instruments to the project, as well as a number of folks from the dulcimer playing community who have quality instruments that are no longer in use, and are in need of a good home. For more information on how to donate, or if you happen to know of a young person who may be a good candidate to receive an instrument from the “Dulcimers for David” project, please get in touch with Deb Porter.
