David Young
Photo: Ollie Trenchard, https://www.ollietrenchard.com
David Young is a conductor based in the UK, working with a wide range of ensembles both professional and amateur. Since 2019 he has been Chorus Director with the National Symphony Orchestra, Ireland. Highlights have included Mahler Symphony No. 2 (Anja Bihlmaier), Rachmaninov The Bells (Mihhail Gerts), Dvořák Requiem (Patrik Ringborg), Lili Boulanger Psalm 129, Ravel Daphnis et Chloé (both Jaime Martín), and Vaughan Williams A Sea Symphony (Leonard Slatkin). He will conduct the orchestra and chorus in Bach St Matthew Passion on Good Friday this year.
In 2023 he took up the post of Music Director of the Cambridge University Symphony Chorus, after a highly successful period as Guest Conductor. Future plans include Elgar The Dream of Gerontius in Ely Cathedral, and an invitation to Helsinki to perform and record the same work with Nicholas Collon and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
He has also recently been appointed as Musical Director of Musarc, one of the UK’s leading experimental choirs. His first concert saw the group perform Jennifer Walshe The White Noisery and Lili Boulanger Sous Bois alongside music by Sylvia Lim and Enno Poppe. Future collaborations for Musarc include Jack Sheen’s Croon Harvest (The Trilogy Tapes) at Camden Art Centre, and a project with Keiji Haino at St John on Bethnal Green for Cafe Oto.
David also works extensively as a freelancer, and is a regular face with the BBC Symphony Chorus, where he has worked on a characteristically diverse array of projects, including music by Matthew Kaner, George Walker, Judith Weir, Vaughan-Williams, Sibelius and Mahler. He first worked with the BBC Singers as chorus master for the BBC Proms in 2023, presenting the music of Jon Hopkins with conductor Jules Buckley. In early 2024 he worked for the first time with Chamber Choir Ireland, preparing them for a forthcoming recording of the music of Gabriel Fauré on Naxos. He has also recently collaborated with Oliver Beer on his Resonance Caves project, working on recording sessions in the Grotte Font-de-Gaume where 20,000 year old cave paintings are found.
As guest conductor he has appeared with RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra (Mozart Symphony No. 40, Fauré Masques et Bergamasques) and recorded Paul Frost’s orchestral suite The Burning of Cork with RTÉ Concert Orchestra. As well as guest work with many choirs around London and the South East, he has had extremely successful tenures as Musical Director of Cardiff Polyphonic Choir, Reading Bach Choir, Dorking Choral Society and Stafford Choral Society, and as Choral Director at the Yehudi Menuhin School, as well as a fellowship with the RSNO Chorus. Orchestral concert highlights have included Handel Messiah in St David’s Hall, Elgar The Dream of Gerontius in Lichfield Cathedral, Monteverdi Vespers in Llandaff Cathedral and Handel Dixit Dominus at the RWCMD.
David studied in Manchester and Cardiff with Neil Ferris, Justin Doyle, Matthew Hamilton, Mark Heron, and Sarah Tenant-Flowers. He brings to bear a wide experience of different practices of conducting, and has seen the process from many sides: he started singing at school and in the Hallé Youth Choir, subsequently joining the Hallé Choir and experiencing being part of a symphonic chorus. During and following his academic studies he combined his conducting work with freelance professional singing for a number of years, and he was a member of Genesis Sixteen whilst a postgraduate conducting student. He aims to amalgamate these experiences into his practice, which is both musically comprehensive and high-energy, striving to unlock the potential for personal expression inside everyone with whom he works, and to bind this into a cohesive whole.
