My Story
Born and raised in the small wooded town of Mendham, New Jersey, David Tolk studied classical piano from an early age with his mother, Marilyn Tolk, who is a graduate of The Juilliard School. During his teenage years, David became more interested in learning to play the music of Rush, Journey, Van Halen, Kansas, Genesis, Yes, and other bands on the piano and his Korg synthesizers. He quickly discovered that he could play most songs on the radio by ear. After his freshman year at Mendham High School, David's family moved to Brentwood, Tennessee, where his father became a professor of physics at Vanderbilt University. While in Tennessee, David's love for music continued to grow and flourish.
David studied English literature and obtained his Bachelor's Degree in 1993. While in college, he met and married the love of his life, Lisa Harris, from northern California, who was also an English major. David also performed and recorded an album with Ali Ali Oxen Free while in college. With that band, David opened for the British band, The Sundays, in 1991 in Salt Lake City.
In 1993, David began studying law at the University of Utah College of Law. While in law school, David began performing and recording with folk artist, Peter Breinholt. David recorded multiple albums with Peter and performed with him all across the United States. Before graduating from law school, David recorded and released his first album, Mendham, a tribute to his childhood hometown. In May of 1996, he graduated from law school in the Kingsbury Hall theater on the campus of the University of Utah. Later that same evening, he performed to a sold out audience with Peter Breinholt in that same theater.
David has released fifteen peaceful instrumental piano albums which have received international distribution and radio airplay. David's 2010 instrumental piano CD release, "David Tolk Christmas," peaked at #8 on the Billboard New Age Chart for the week of December 25, 2010. David's three most recently released albums, Blessings, Heaven's Light, and Wonder (which was released in September of 2024), peaked as the #1 best-selling new-age album on Amazon shortly after their releases. David's music has received 600 million streams on Pandora and more than 100 million streams on Spotify. Over the past two years, his music has exploded on Instagram. David's song “Pray” has received billions of listens as the musical soundtrack for more than 300k Instagram reels. “Pray” peaked at #9 among all trending songs on Instagram, one spot higher than Billie Eilish. David's music has been featured on Instagram reels by Britney Spears, Evangeline Lilly, Michelle Kwan, Jay Shetty, Nate Smith, and others. His music has been featured on Public Radio programs including "Hearts of Space" and "Echoes." David has composed music for Warner/Chappell Production Music for licensing in film and commercials. David has collaborated with Steven Sharp Nelson of The Piano Guys over the course of more than 25 years in concert and in the recording studio. Steven performed and recorded the cello parts on David's albums, Mendham, Holiday, and In Reverence. Steven recently recorded the beautiful peaceful cello parts on David's singles, Blessings, A Beautiful Life, and Timeless. All of David's music can be streamed everywhere including Pandora, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and all of the other streaming sites.
Almost all of David's music is inspired by his amazing and beautiful wife, Lisa!