Dave Bartley

Guitar • Mandolin

Guitarist and mandolinist Dave Bartley has a considerable recording catalogue: With Seattle Symphony, he recorded Mahler’s 8th. With his band, KGB, he’s recorded five albums. With Roguery, seven albums and, with numerous other artists, Dave has played on more than 25 other albums. Dave played mandolin onstage in two Seattle Opera’s productions of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. He played guitar for Seattle Symphony in John Adams’s Naïve and Sentimental Music and mandolin for Mahler’s 7^th and 8^th Symphonies as well as for Das Lied Von Der Erde.

Though he’s played in rock bands, world music ensembles, and symphony orchestras, ballroom and folk dance are Dave’s musical happy places. In addition to Joy Street, which he joined in 2006, Dave also plays with the contra dance bands KGB and Contra Sutra, the English Country Dance bands Roguery and Tricky Brits, and the Celtic ensembles Keltoi and The Irish Experience. He has also played English country-dance music for 20 years, starting as a performer and musician with the performance group Nonesuch English Country Dancers.

Dave has composed over 300 dance tunes. A waltz he wrote and KGB recorded, The Clock Stopped, is used to teach cross-step waltz in much of the US and other parts of the world. A reel he wrote, Vladi on the Trans-Siberian, appears on five recordings and has become part of the contra-dance common repertoire.

Besides playing in much of the US and Canada, Dave has taught workshops and performed for festivals, dances, and concerts in England, France, Greece, and Australia. 

Something that brings Dave joy: Hiking and backpacking in the Cascade and Olympic mountains.

What Dave’s most proud of: His beautiful marriage (33 years and counting).

Favorite dessert: Ice cream.

Something surprising about Dave: He’s a member of the 50 State Club (and has also been to all of the Australian states and all but one Canadian province).

Something Dave likes about playing with Joy Street: The variety!