David Tolley
If you have ever walked around Uptown Westerville to stop in a shop or meet up to grab a bite, there is a good chance you have run into Kevin and David Tolley.
Kevin is a happy-go-lucky black lab that is always excited and happy to say hello to strangers.
His owner, David Tolley, is also very upbeat and always stops to talk to people he meets. The pair are both Westerville residents, and Tolley is a musician and composer. You may have heard him play at a local church, event or perhaps throughout Disneyland in Paris and Tokyo.
From moving to Los Angeles and getting discovered on a late-night talk show to teaching about working in the music industry, Tolley’s career has provided unique opportunities that many may never experience.
Midwest to West Coast
Born in Dublin in 1959, Tolley grew up as the seventh of eight children. He found his love of music when he was just 5, starting formal lessons two years later, and balancing music with sports, other extracurriculars and his schooling as the years went on.
When he hit the seventh grade, his family moved to Worthington. There, he would graduate from Worthington High School and the Fort Hayes Metropolitan Education Center in 1978, where he was one of its first graduates and valedictorian of his class.
The Ohio State University was his next stop, where he earned a double Bachelor’s in Music Theory/Composition in 1980. Two years later he would earn a second Bachelor’s in Piano Performance as well as a Master of Music in Composition. 4
After graduation, Tolley was at a crossroads and had to decide if he wanted to go back to school or put himself out there.
“I started my first quarter of my doctorate, and I’m like, ‘What the heck am I doing?’” Tolley says. “I had been doing school, school, school since kindergarten and I’m like, ‘That’s not why I got into music.’”
So, Tolley packed up his Volkswagen Rabbit with everything he had and made the move out to the West Coast, knowing only one person there, taking a chance that would make a huge impact on his career.
Highs and lows
David Tolley
Within the first six months, as the holidays rolled around, Tolley became homesick. To cheer him up, his younger brother, Ritchie, visited, and the two got onto the set of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
With pianist Horacio Gutierrez out due to an injury, Carson called upon the audience to find a stand-in and, after some nudging from his brother, Tolley volunteered and performed.
What started as an impromptu performance would lead to a secondary appearance on the show and countless opportunities down the road. For the next 20 years, Tolley worked as a freelance musician, doing everything from composing music for anime films, TV shows and a project with Steven Spielberg, to performing at the Beverly Hills Hotel and events attended and hosted by celebrities – including, on one occasion, Tolley’s favorite celebrity athlete, Muhammad Ali.
“Muhammad Ali came up from his birthday dinner, walked up and, and he wrote me a poem while I was playing the piano,” Tolley says.
Even as his career grew and took off, Tolley still had time to create a life outside of his work with a wife, four kids and a house that had a pool and an in-house studio.
Unfortunately, their world would be flipped upside down by a cancer diagnosis that would bring them back to the Midwest to be near family in 2005.
“We sold (our house) and packed the bags and moved back home for family support. I’m glad we did, but it was hard. I can’t deny it, it was very hard,” Tolley says.
Feeling lost and looking for a way to support his family, Tolley went back to OSU and completed his Doctorate in Music Composition, eventually landing a full-time teaching job at Delaware State University. Not wanting to uproot his family again, Trolley began flying back and forth from Columbus to Delaware every week and still does to this day, even with his kids fully grown, because he loves the community.
New direction
As a professor of music and the director of the music industry program at DSU, Tolley loves connecting with his students and teaching them not only about the music world, but real life. Hoping to support them long past the classroom, he has stayed in contact with several students over the years by reviewing job contracts and giving career advice.
“I always say, ‘Look, I’m not an attorney, but I signed a lot of contracts. I’ve seen a lot of contracts, and I got burned by a lot of contracts out in LA,’ and so part of my education is street worthy,” Tolley says. “I always say, ‘Whatever you get out of this class is great, but I will always be an outside advisor for you, for free.’”
When he’s not working with students or traveling to campus from his College Avenue home, Tolley fills his time helping write music for musicals. His most recent project, a family-friendly Off-Broadway show called Mr. Puppy The Musical, was performed in New York last summer.
As he nears retirement in the coming years, he hopes to spend more time doing the one thing he fell in love with: creating music. Whether that is through the musicals he writes or the performances he gives, Tolley will never stop being a musician.
“I’m a full professor with tenure, and so in two years, I’ll retire, and keep on doing music,” he says. “I’ll probably do it until I die. I love to write.”
Rachel Hanz is the lead editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at rhanz@cityscenemediagroup.com.
