"When I became ill with my stroke, there were no one-handed saxophones so we had to use our imagination to work out how to do it," says the 57-year-old, of Nebraska, USA.
David worked painstakingly with an musical instrument-maker to make a unique saxophone specially adapted to meet his needs.
So, while a saxophonist usually plays two-handed, David's instrument has been made so that all the notes can be played with his right hand, while his left-hand grips the instrument with a handle.
"It's changed my life," says David, a Professor of Music at the University of Nebraska.
"My saxophone allows me to do everything that an able-bodied person does with two hands, with only one hand.
"Thanks to that and wonderful people like the team at West Midlands Rehabilitation Centre back in the United States, I'm able to walk, talk and play music again."
David says that helping to reduce the substantial cost of creating such specially-adapted instruments is high among his personal and professional interests.
David and Dan met while completing PhDs in music at the University of North Texas in the early nineties. Becoming firm friends, they played in a jazz band together and have kept in touch - but rarely performed together - ever since.
www.ohmi.org.uk
