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Derek David is a composer, conductor, and music educator based in Boston, Massachusetts. His dramatic and vibrant chamber music has been performed in both Europe and the United States and has received great recognition from audiences and critics alike. Derek has been the recipient of the EAMA Nadia Boulanger Institute Prize (2011), the Morton Gould ASCAP Award (2011), first place in the 2015 American Prize in Composition–Chamber Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s New Art Song Competition. Derek was the recipient of the 2018 SFCM Hoefer Prize for his accumulative body of work from over the past 10 years. He has been commissioned by the Juventas Ensemble, SAKURA Cello Quintet, The Sonica Quartet, The Sounding Board, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music New Music Ensemble, the Verona Quartet, Del Sol String Quartet, and the Institute for Jewish Research (YIVO). His music was recently featured in the 2019 LA Philharmonic’s Noon to Midnight Festival and the 2022 Boston Festival for New Jewish Music.
In 2004, David received second place in the New Jewish Music competition hosted by the Bureau of Jewish Education for his setting of Jewish liturgical music for Chorus and Orchestra, and was recognized for the same work, Mi Camocha by The National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts. In 2007 Mr. David was a winner of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music’s New Art Song Competition for his setting of Walt Whitman poetry, As Adam Early in the Morning. His symphonic poem Elegy was premiered at the annual Musical Diplomacy concert in March 2009. Derek’s String Quartet (2011), described as “a true musical jewel of the 21st Century (ClassiqueNews),” has been met with international praise and repeated performances throughout the United States.
Derek is a Yiddishist specializing in music of the Yiddish. Since 2018, Derek has been the musical director and conductor of ‘A Besere Velt’ - אַ בעסערע װעלט, one of three choirs in the world —and the largest— dedicated to the performance and preservation of Yiddish repertoire. As a vocalist, with studies from Ethel Reim, Derek has presented solo interpretations of Yiddish folksong in academic and artistic settings. He has presented on Yiddish music and folksong at Lehrhaus in Somerville, MA, Sorbonne Université, and Bard College Conservatory of Music. He is choral director of the Yiddish New York annual festival and was a 2024 KlezKanada Azrieli Scholar.
Derek has received funding from the Cambridge Cultural Council, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, and MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology. He is a 2024 and 2025 Artist-in-Residence at the Byrdcliffe Artist Guild in Woodstock, NY.
Originally from Los Angeles, Derek developed a passion for music at a young age. His studies led him to The San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he received his Bachelor’s in composition (2008), where teachers included David Conte, David Garner, and Conrad Susa. Derek' received his Master’s degree in composition (with honors, 2010), and his Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition (2017) from the New England Conservatory of Music, working mainly with Michael Gandolfi. Additional mentors include Steven Stucky and George Tsontakis (Aspen Music Festival), and Philip Lasser (EAMA Nadia Boulanger Institute). An enthusiastic educator, Derek has taught theory, keyboard harmony, and musicianship for institutions such as the New England Conservatory of Music, The Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and at The Walden School, From 2015 - 2019, he was Teaching Fellow at Harvard University, where he was five-time recipient of the Distinction in Teaching Award. He is currently Lecturer in Music at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and teaches in his private studio, with a diverse study on counterpoint, Partimento/thorough bass, and contemporary techniques. His private students have gone on to study music at such institutions as Yale University, Oberlin College and SUNY, Purchase. His areas of academic interest extend to Medieval theory and musicology, The Beatles, and music of the Yiddish world.