Described as “a staggeringly talented young artist with powerful rhythm and elegant phrasing” (Austin Classical Guitar), David Manzanares-Salguero is a multi-award-winning classical guitarist from Houston, TX. He has won top prizes in several competitions including the Philadelphia Guitar Competition, Southwest Guitar Symposium, Florida Guitar Festival, Columbus Guitar Symposium, and the Houston Classical Guitar Festival. Most recently, David was a co-winner in the prestigious Yale Gordon Concerto Competition performing Tedesco’s Guitar Concerto in D major. Some of his most recent notable performances include performing for the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Festival, Austin Classical Guitar’s play! series, and performing at the Home of the Spanish Ambassador in Washington D.C.
Passionate about community outreach, David participated in the Music for a While program at Peabody Institute during the 2021-22 academic year, bringing music to the Johns Hopkins Hospital. From 2022 to 2024, he was the Musician in Residence at the Edenwald Senior Living Community where he performed and curated weekly concerts for its independent and assisted living communities. During the 2023-24 academic year, David was selected to be a performer for Peabody at the Shelter, bringing music to Helping Up Mission, a shelter and addiction recovery center in Baltimore, MD. Currently, he serves as Peabody’s Arts in Health program’s inaugural Intern in Inspired Aging.
David cares deeply about finding ways to make higher education more accessible for low-income students. He recently won the competitive Launch Grant from the Peabody Institute to fund the creation of “For the Future,” a college readiness program that guides high school classical guitarists facing financial barriers through the college application process.
As a supporter and performer of new music, David has collaborated with a variety of composers to create works for solo guitar and guitar ensemble. Recently, David received a Peabody Launchpad Grant to commission underrepresented composers to write duets for the Mina Duo, a guitar duo he started with Gwenyth Aggeler. These composers include Seo Yoon Soyoona Kim, Merick Ohata, and Angela Ortiz. The Duo is recording these commissions for an upcoming album, aiming to give a voice to communities that are unheard.
David has performed in masterclasses for Manuel Barrueco, Gabriel Bianco, Zoran Dukić, Grisha Goryachev, Adam Holzman, Sharon Isbin, Juan Carlos Laguna, Lorenzo Micheli, Judicaël Perroy, David Russell, Benjamin Verdery, and Jason Vieaux. He has studied and performed at many summer music programs like the Brevard Music Center and Boston Guitar Festival, and has earned full scholarships to attend the Aspen Music Festival and the Bath Guitar Festival.
David received his Bachelor of Music in Performance at The Peabody Institute of Music of the Johns Hopkins University studying with Dr. Thomas Viloteau. He continued his studies at Peabody receiving his Master of Music in Performance and Pedagogy studying with Maestro Manuel Barrueco. Currently, David is pursuing his Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Texas in Austin studying with Professor Adam Holzman as his teaching assistant. He is partnered with Knobloch Strings and Le Support and his website is dmsguitar.com.
