David Hoose, Music Director

Winner of the 2005 Alice M. Ditson Conductor’s Award, given “in recognition of exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers,” and the 2008 Choral Arts New England’s Alfred Nash Patterson Lifetime Achievement Award, David Hoose is known as a probing interpreter of music that reaches from the 17th to the 21st century. His performances have included innumerable world, US and Boston premieres, including commissioned works by T.J. Anderson, Martin Brody, Peter Child, Richard Cornell, Michael Gandolfi, John Harbison, Stephen Hartke, John Heiss, Andrew Imbrie, Fred Lerdahl, Marjorie Merryman, Lior Navok, James Primosch, David Rakowski, Elena Ruehr, Donald Sur, Andy Vores, and Yehudi Wyner. His recordings appear on the Koch International, Nonesuch, New World, Delos, Gunmar, and CRI labels.

Since 1982, David has been Music Director of Cantata Singers & Ensemble, and he was Music Director of the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra for eleven seasons. He is also Professor emeritus at Boston University, where for twenty-nine years he taught conducting and was director of the School of Music’s orchestral program. He has appeared as guest conductor with the Saint Louis Symphony, Utah Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Quad City Symphony, Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Symphony Chamber Players, Emmanuel Music, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, and with the orchestras of the New England Conservatory, Shepherd School of Music, University of Southern California (UCLA), and the Eastman School. 

With Cantata Singers, David received the ASCAP/Chorus America Award for Adventurous Programming; with the Emmanuel Wind Quintet, the Walter W. Naumburg Award For Chamber Music; and as a fellowship student at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Dmitri Mitropoulos Award. In 2005, the City of Tallahassee named a week after him for his contributions to the musical life of the region, and the City of Boston declared November 3, 2018, “David Hoose Day,” in recognition of his impact on the cultural life of the city.