David McGillicuddy is a graduate of Don Keller’s Aptos High School Jazz program who went on to study with Ray Brown at Cabrillo College and was a music major at UC Santa Cruz. He was a member of the CCS Honor Jazz Band, CMEA State Honor Band, and the Monterey Jazz Festival High School All Star Band that performed at the MJF and toured Japan in 1987.

He has taught music lessons privately since 1997, and his students have gone on to study music at the Berklee College of Music, and at USC and perform nationwide and internationally. David attended his first concert at Kuumbwa in 1985 and began volunteering at Kuumbwa in 1988. His YouTube channel of jazz guitar lessons has hundreds of subscribers and nearly a quarter of a million views.