David Coffin

Who is David Coffin?

David Coffin is a folk musician specializing in early music and sea music, based in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He is the song leader for the Cambridge Revels music programs and is the director of the Narration Program for Boston Harbor Cruises. He also presents music enrichment programs for schools throughout New England. One program is based on the history of the recorder and the other is called Life at Sea: A Voyage in Song.

Coffin is possessed of a bass-baritone voice and plays various types of recorders and whistles, in addition to archaic instruments like the shawm, racket or gemshorn. Coffin comes from a musical background: His father, Rev. William Sloane Coffin, studied to be a concert pianist with Nadia Boulanger in Paris, his grandfather was pianist Arthur Rubinstein, and his great-grandfather was Polish conductor Emil Mlynarski.

He works at Save the Harbor/ Save the Bay over the past nine years. He leads the All Access Boston Harbor youth program, which brings kids from all over Massachusetts to go to George's Island or Spectacle Island.