David lai, co-president

David Lai (he/him) is a founding partner of Park Avenue Artists and an award-winning producer, artist manager, music director, and conductor whose career spans classical, jazz, pop, television, and Broadway.

David has served on the management teams of many of the world's leading artists, including Joshua Bell, Time For Three, Yebba, Itzhak Perlman, Renée Fleming, 2CELLOS, the Emerson String Quartet, Ashley Brown, Ryan Silverman, Jordan Donica, and Eldar Djangirov.

A multiple Grammy® Award-winning producer, thirteen-time Grammy® nominee, Emmy® Award winner, Drama Desk Award winner, and two-time Tony Award nominee, David's recording credits encompass an extraordinary range of genres and artists. His artist recordings include projects with Joshua Bell, Time For Three (Grammy® Award), Plácido Domingo, Herbie Hancock, Joyce DiDonato, Ricky Martin, Megan Hilty, Lang Lang, Eldar (Grammy® nomination), Josh Groban, Renée Fleming, Itzhak Perlman, Kristin Chenoweth, and Audra McDonald.

His Broadway cast album credits include Grammy® Award-winning recordings of Hadestown and West Side Story, as well as Grammy®-nominated albums for Gypsy starring Audra McDonald, Merrily We Roll Along starring Jonathan Groff, Daniel Radcliffe and Lindsay Mendez, My Fair Lady, Come From Away, Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, South Pacific, and Promises, Promises starring Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth. Additional cast album projects include Funny Girlstarring Lea Michele, Camelot, the all-star recording of Allegro, and the Spanish-language cast albums of The Phantom of the Opera and Jesus Christ Superstar.

Recent projects include Kevin Puts’ song cycle, No Prisoner Be, featuring Grammy winners Joyce DiDonato and Time for Three, and Thomas de Hartmann's Violin Concerto featuring Joshua Bell, Dalia Stasevska, and the INSO-Lviv Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming projects include an American Songbook album by Itzhak Perlman featuring Josh Groban and Jon Batiste, a symphonic blues project with Morgan Freeman, and a Whitney Houston symphonic remix album.

Prior to founding Park Avenue Artists, David served as Head of A&R for Sony Masterworks, overseeing classical, jazz, and Broadway recordings. He was also A&R Executive for the Grammy® Award-winning Songs of Joy & Peace (Yo-Yo Ma) and the Grammy®-nominated Bach in Havana (Tiempo Libre).

David has been a consultant producer for numerous PBS and television productions, including Live From Lincoln Center broadcasts featuring Renée Fleming and Joshua Bell, Joshua Bell's HBO YoungArts special, Renée Fleming's Christmas in New York, and Lang Lang's New York Rhapsody. He received an Emmy® Award for Time For Three's PBS special and an Emmy® nomination as Music Director for Joshua Bell's Seasons of Cuba.

As a conductor and music director, David has appeared with symphony orchestras including Dallas, Fort Worth, Pacific, Taipei, Jacksonville, and the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra. His television appearances include The Today Show, Good Morning America, The View, and CBS This Morning. As a pianist and music director, he has performed at venues ranging from the Rainbow Room and Caramoor Festival to CBGB and The Bottom Line.

David served as Music Director and Conductor for the Broadway production of The Phantom of the Opera, leading more than 6,000 performances. His additional Broadway credits as conductor, music coordinator, pianist, and keyboardist include Cats, the Jellicle Ball, Sweeney Todd starring Josh Groban, Spamalot, Lincoln Center Theater's Camelot, Bad Cinderella, Hadestown, My Fair Lady, King Kong, Come From Away, Sunset Boulevard, Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I, Bonnie and Clyde, Evita, Mary Poppins, Wonderland, South Pacific, Miss Saigon, The Woman in White, Riverdance, Jesus Christ Superstar, Les Misérables, and Aspects of Love.

David holds bachelor's degrees in Engineering, Economics, and Music from Brown University and an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Columbia University.