Collector of collections

David DeBoor Canfield combines composing, teaching, and a classical record business into one busy career with a central theme | Arsenio Orteza

Perry Reichanadter/Genesis Photos

BLOOMINGTON, Ind.—"Do you know who this guy is? He's a polymath!"

The man asking the question is Tim Bayly, the senior pastor of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Bloomington, Ind. The polymath is David DeBoor Canfield, an elder at Bayly's church and a biblical theology and church history instructor at the church's ClearNote Pastors College.

What makes Canfield, 58, a polymath is that he is also a violinist active in two Bloomington orchestras and a prolific composer of serious music. His Martyrs for the Faith: Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Symphonic Winds received its world premiere performance by Kenneth Tse (a dedicated Christian on the faculty of the University of Iowa) at the World Saxophone Congress in 2003. In 2001 the University of Central Oklahoma hosted a three-day Canfield festival.