Purify me lord by david clydesdale biography

In seventh grade, David T. Clydesdale ’75 orchestrated a hymn for his church.

“I have no idea how I did it because no one had ever taught me,” he admitted.

From two tone deaf parents came a prodigy who was composing and orchestrating entire musicals before graduating from high school.

Two weeks before his high school graduation, Clydesdale won a Musician of the Year award in his native Philadelphia that funded a full year of college at a music conservatory of his choice.

“My mom had heard the Wheaton College choir sing, so we got on the phone with Dr.

Best, the head of the Wheaton Conservatory, while I played the piano and cello in the background,” he remembered. “That’s where it all began.”

Clydesdale stepped off the plane at O’Hare with his cello in one hand and his suitcase in the other, taking the first of many leaps of faith that would define his remarkable 46-year career as a songwriter, arranger, and conductor.

As he immersed himself in studying com