David Weber was born on Dec. 18, 1913, in Vilnius, in what is now Lithuania, and moved with his family to Detroit. He took up the clarinet and studied with a member of the Detroit Symphony. One day he arrived for a lesson and was sent home; his teacher had committed suicide. The incident was searing, he told The Clarinet.

He went to New York to study with Simeon Bellison, the Russian principal clarinet of the New York Philharmonic, who along with Daniel Bonade of France — another Weber teacher — helped establish modern clarinet-playing in the United States.

 

In the late 1930's, he auditioned for Toscanini and was immediately brought into the NBC Symphony. He also had stints with the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, CBS Symphony and Symphony of the Air, the NBC Symphony's successor. He was principal clarinet of the New York City Ballet Orchestra from 1964 until 1986, when he retired from performance, and taught at the Juilliard School.

He died in New York City in January 2006