David Gruender has spent many years as a professional symphony and opera musician playing double bass. He has taught instrumental music in public schools in the Berkshires and served as conductor for community bands and orchestras in Massachusetts and Indiana. He is now retired from a career as a Major Orchestra librarian beginning with the Tanglewood Music Center and continuing with the Baltimore Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, and Boston Symphony/Boston Pops. He is active as a musician in the Keene area with the Keene Chamber Orchestra, the Keene State College Orchestra, The Windham Philharmopnic, and various chamber music groups.

In addition to his music background, he has graduate degrees in English literature and has led sessions on topics ranging from the history of the detective novel to Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Rudyard Kipling both for the CALL program and Road Scholars. He has been a program annotator for the Albany Symphony and has contributed reviews and articles to a number of publications. He is very active in the local running community and you may very well spot him running almost anywhere in and around Keene.