David Bertrand is from Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago and received a B.A. in English Literature from the The University of the West Indies and an M.A. in Jazz Performance from the Aaron Copland School of Music at CUNY Queens College. David teaches and performs on flute, alto flute, piccolo, clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano saxophone and percussion. As a flutist/multi-reedist and composer active in the New York jazz scene, David is a sideman for a constantly expanding community of artists, and has performed throughout the Caribbean and the USA. David also leads a group devoted to playing his original music, driven by an interest to find organic, personal intersections between modern jazz and the folkloric rhythms and song forms of his homeland, Trinidad & Tobago.Together, they have performed at Twins Jazz, the Cornelia Street Café, Soapbox Gallery, ShapeShifter Lab, Whynot Jazz Room, Nublu, Spectrum, Club Bonafide, Caffè Vivaldi and the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music Concert Hall. David was a regular guest musician for the Spring/Summer 2020 sessions of Meditating for Black Lives and in the same year, was invited by Downbeat Magazine to write the September 2020 editorial that focused on the impact of systemic racism within the jazz world. He is a 2021 recipient of a City Artist Corp grant through the New York Foundation of the Arts and was invited to accompany speakers and presentations at the 2022 Mine Action symposium of the United Nations Mine Action Service.