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Dave Welsch says, \u201cI don\u2019t remember a time when there wasn\u2019t music in my life.\u201d His mother played piano, his father played trumpet and had weekend gigs, and Dave\u2019s first performance in front of an audience was when he was nine years old; he was gigging with his father at about fourteen. He learned music mainly by ear and playing along with records.

He met Victor Wooten in 1994 and helped create Vic\u2019s first website. Dave has played with Vic, served as his assistant and tour manager, and was with Vic when his first music camp was held in 1999. Dave says, \u201cVic is an idea person,\u201d and had wanted to start a music and nature camp; the camps are now in their 20th year. Of the camps, Dave says, \u201cI think we\u2019ve really been somehow successful in making the connection between music and life.\u201d He says that so many students have grown personally from music, with many life-changing experiences, and so many fine musicians are wonderful people.\u201d

Dave says that Vic\u2019s book, The Music Lesson, is rooted in the idea that music is a language. The audiobook is really special, he says, because it was all produced in Vic\u2019s studio with the people who inspired the characters. \u201cThe more you think about music as a language, the better you are going to learn it.\u201d

He also says a key facet of music is \u201cto look at music as a living entity.\u201d Dave says, \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to me always to watch people enjoy music \u2026 music affects them in some way that they don\u2019t care [how they are dancing]!\u201d He says, \u201cOne of my goals in life is to make people smile,\u201d and that certainly happens through music.\xa0

When people go to concerts, they don\u2019t care about who the other people are, what color, what religion, they are just enjoying the music. And, he says, if we can do that for two hours at a concert, we have to be able to do that in the world. The feeling of community through music is so important, he says, \u201cyou feel empathy and compassion, and love for the people around you.\u201d