About David

Career highlights of composer David Friedman

With multi-platinum recordings, Broadway shows, Disney Animated Films, Television scores, and a teaching and lecturing career that spans the nation, David Friedman is truly someone who has made a major mark in all areas of show business.

From "We Can Be Kind" to "Listen to My Heart", "Help is on the Way", "We Live on Borrowed Time", "Trust The Wind", and "I'll Be Here With You", David has written songs of inspiration, love and hope that take on new emotional meaning in these challenging times.

After spending several years conducting musicals on Broadway, including Grease, Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Song and Dance, David went to Hollywood where he was the conductor and vocal arranger on such Disney classics as Beauty & The Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. This led to David writing music and lyrics for Disney's Aladdin and the King of Thieves, scoring three animated television series (Happy Ness, Sky Dancers and Dragon Flyz) and the film Trick, and a 13-year stint as music supervisor and vocal arranger of Broadway's Beauty & The Beast.

Most recently, David has been writing musicals for Broadway. His show Chasing Nicolette, written with Peter Kellogg, has had three highly successful productions, at The Westport Country Playhouse in Connecticut, The Prince Theater in Philadelphia and the Village Theatre in Seattle, and won the Barrymore Award in Philadelphia for best music. It is slated to open on Broadway next season.

After a critically acclaimed production in Seattle, David's show Stunt Girl, about the life of Nellie Bly, also written with Peter Kellogg, was just presented at a staged reading in New York and is now preparing for an out of town run before a Broadway opening.

A new Kellogg/Friedman show, Lincoln in Love, about the early life of Abraham Lincoln, written for the Bicentennial of Lincoln's birth, had its first reading at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. and is currently being developed at the Village Theatre in Seattle.

And a fourth show by the Kellogg/Friedman team, Desperate Measures, a country and western version of Shakespeare's Measure For Measure, was an award winner at the New York Musical Theater Festival and has been successfully produced in theaters around the country.

David's Christmas Oratorio King Island Christmas, written with Deborah Brevoort, has had over 40 productions around the world, and continues to be a Christmas staple in community, regional and professional theaters across the country.

As a record producer, David started his own company, MIDDER Music Records, and wrote for and produced all of the late, great Nancy LaMott's CDs, including the recently released Nancy LaMott - Live at Tavern on the Green. A new Nancy LaMott double CD entitled Ask Me Again, hit the Top 20 Billboard Jazz Chart, and a new DVD of 25 of Nancy's performances has also become a best-seller. Next, MIDDER will be releasing a 4-DVD set of Nancy's live cabaret performances, and both a movie and a book on her life are in development.

David's songs have been sung and recorded by luminaries such as Diana Ross ("Your Love" - Quadruple Platinum), Barry Manilow ("We Live on Borrowed Time" and "You're There" featured on Barry's most recent live CD,) Allison Krauss, Petula Clark, Laura Branigan, Kathie Lee Gifford, Jason Alexander, Lucie Arnaz, Laurie Beechman, Lainie Kazan, Leslie Uggams and many others.

David's multi-platinum selling song "Open Your Eyes To Love" was featured on the soundtrack of The Lizzie McGuire Movie and he wrote the opening song for Disney's sequel to Bambi, (sung by Allison Krauss) which was recently released to record-breaking sales.

David is a regular guest on the Today Show on NBC, writing a new song each month based on stories submitted by viewers, for the "Everyone Has a Story" series. David has written hundreds of songs with Kathie Lee Gifford, and they have co-written and co-produced two children's CDs, One of them has just become a children's musical called Party Animals, produced at the Tampa Bay Center for the Performing Arts. David also co-wrote the score to the Broadway-bound musical Saving Aimee with Kathie Lee and David Pomeranz.

David's songs have been used to raise money for charitable organizations ranging from Duke Children's Hospital to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, and Birmingham's Summerfest School for the Performing Arts. His song "Help Is On The Way" has been the theme song of the Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet Competition for the past 15 years.

In 2003, David completed an Off-Broadway run of his revue, entitled Listen To My Heart-The Songs of David Friedman, featuring David and five of Broadways finest singers performing 27 of his songs. The cast CD, containing a live performance of the entire show, is released on MIDDER Records. The show has now been performed in 10 American cities as well as in London, Ireland, Germany and Australia. Recently it had a highly successful production in Tampa, and this production will be reprised in Tampa and brought back into New York in 2011.

Having published his songbook, containing 63 of his best known songs, David is hard at work on a solo CD, entitled Trust The Wind - David Friedman sings his own songs, and as many as 10 new posthumous Nancy LaMott CD's.

The Thought Exchange

In an effort to give back and pass on the knowledge he has accumulated in his multi-faceted career, David has created a method called The Thought Exchange. Originally developed as a way to empower artists and help them achieve their goals, The Thought Exchange has taken on a life of its own as David travels the country bringing this powerful system to people in all walks of life. Read more