Music Director and Conductor
Derek David is music director of ‘A Besere Velt’, the world’s largest choir dedicated to the performance of Yiddish music. Prior to this appointment, he honed his skills at an early age, conducting full operas such as Hansel and Gretel, The Magic Flute, and The Marriage of Figaro, Carmen and the musical Les Misérables. He was the conductor of the Full Circle Opera Project for their 2003-2004 season, conducting the finale to Puccini's Turandot in Los Angeles Walt Disney Concert Hall. As a choir conductor, he conducted the men's and women's choirs at the Walden School from 2015-2017. He studied conducting with Alan Mauntner in Los Angeles and at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Faculty/Conductor, Yiddish New York Choir (December, 2023-)
Music Director, A Besere Velt (2017 - )
Choir conductor, Walden School (2015-17)
A Besere Velt, Music Director (2017-)
Yiddish Chorus of the Boston Workers Circle
About A Besere Velt:
Founded in 1997, A Besere Velt has performed throughout New England and New York, from conferences to picket lines, from temples to interfaith rallies, from universities to senior centers, and released its debut CD in 2006.
In 2023, ABV performed with Daniel Kahn
In 2019, ABV collaborated with world-renowned vocalist Anthony Russell on "Diasporas & Dreams", a show that wove diasporas and the heartbreak of exiles past and present, together with love and struggle and dreams of a better world.
In 2018, ABV performed their first concert with Derek David as a featured ensemble at the Yiddish New York Festival to great acclaim. The concert can be seen its entirety along with a Yiddish review of the Concert in The Yiddish Foward Here.
In 2016, ABV and The Klezmatics transported their audience of over 1,000 people on a musical and multi-cultural adventure at their concert "Tevye's Daughters: Journeys to A Better World".
Photography from A Besere Velt’s May Day! Concert on May 4, 2024