David K. Hildebrand

David K. Hildebrand is a freelance performer, lecturer, recording artist, and longtime partner of Ginger Hildebrand (since 1980); he is an adjunct instructor at the Peabody Conservatory, and a widely recognized scholar of early American music history, including that of the colonial, Revolutionary, Federal and War of 1812 periods. He has focused especially on the music of Maryland. His dissertation was on the colonial music of Annapolis, and his masters thesis on musical instruments in that region up to the American Revolution.

Dr. Hildebrand earned his undergraduate degree from Dickinson College, and his M.A. and Ph.D. are both in musicology, from George Washington University and The Catholic University of America, respectively. Both solo and with wife Ginger, David appears regularly at Mount Vernon, the National Gallery of Art, Colonial Williamsburg and at colleges, universities, and primary schools around the country. He has written reviews and reader reports for The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, American Music, Oxford University Press, Maryland Historical Magazine, The William & Mary Quarterly, Sea History Magazine, ECCB: The Eighteenth-Century Current Bibliography and The Sonneck Society for American Music Bulletin.

David appears at scholarly conferences, consults, and offers teacher workshops and children's programs. In 2012, he produced and narrated a one-hour national public radio special on music, now released on "Music of the war of 1812" and he is the lead music historian for the nationally broadcast documentary film, "Anthem," the story behind "The Star-Spangled Banner." David and Ginger Hildebrand have released seven full-length CD recordings (see below).