David Embleton

David was born in the northern part of Ecuador and raised in the capital city Quito. He began taking charango lessons when he was 13 in 1990. He soon picked up the guitar and started performing in his first band which made it all the way to the stage of the “Casa de la Cultura”, one of the most important venues for the performing arts in Quito.
He moved to the United States in 1994 to join the Lionel Hampton School of Music at the University of Idaho. There he studied as a Music Major for four semesters focusing mainly in Guitar Performance. While in college he formed a band together with Paul Davila called “Grupo Serenata” which won the Master Card Talent Contest held at the U of I campus in 1996.
Recently after moving to Seattle in 2001 he was hired to perform at the University of Washington Meany Hall with the Seattle Choral Company for the “Fiesta de Navidad” concert under the direction of Fred Coleman, a very important member of the Seattle music community. David has also participated in various events with local Andean Folk band “Amauta”. He is one of the founders of Grupo Samay and was recently elected as band director. David plays primarily the charango and the guitar in the band.