David Briskin, Conductor

Music Director of the Natonal Ballet of Canada, David Briskin is a conductor of uncommon versatility and a wide range of experience. He has led performances of symphonic and choral music, opera, ballet, and modern dance, to equal acclaim.  His conducting credits include leading the Detroit, Indianapolis, Cincinnati Pops, Pittsburgh, Singapore, Calgary and Edmonton Symphony Orchestras; the Orchestra of St. Luke's, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the Juilliard Orchestra in a variety of programs from Pops to Classical.  He recently led the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica in the Latin American premiere of John Corigliano’s monumental First Symphony.

Equally at home in the opera house, Mr. Briskin’s opera schedule has taken him throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe, including performances of La Bohème in Italy; Calgary Opera (Le Nozze di Figaro), Manitoba Opera (Carmen), Opera Carolina (Candide, Falstaff, and Don Giovanni), Opera Columbus (Le Nozze di Figaro), New England Conservatory (Albert Herring), Sarasota Opera (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), and Lake George Opera (Die Entführung aus dem Seraglio).  He has also collaborated with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, creating, casting and conducting operas for their highly acclaimed Arts in Education series in New York City, and has been on the faculty of Joan Dornemann’s International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv since 1999.

In the world of dance, Mr. Briskin served as Music Director and Principal Conductor of Pittsburgh Ballet Theater prior to undertaking his current position.  As former principal guest conductor for American Ballet Theater, Mr. Briskin led performances at the Metropolitan Opera House and New York’s City Center as well is in major opera houses throughout the US, Europe, South American and Asia.  He is a regular guest conductor with the New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, Houston Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada, and Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, as well as the companies of Martha Graham and Paul Taylor among others.  He has been conductor for the Dance Division of The Juilliard School since 1993.

For six years Mr. Briskin served as music director of the NY/NJ based Masterwork Chorus and Orchestra.  The hallmark of his tenure with Masterwork was his critically acclaimed application of the language of the Baroque to modern instruments and some forty performances of Handel’s Messiah at Carnegie Hall and throughout the tri-state

Active in arts education, Mr. Briskin served for three seasons as Artistic Coordinator and Host of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Education Concerts.  He has lectured at the Caramoor Summer Music Festival, the National Society of Arts and Letters, and the Conductor’s Guild, and has participated on panels for the American Symphony Orchestra League and Chamber Music America.  He has served on the faculties of Queens College, CUNY, the 92nd Street Y, and the Mannes College of Music in New York.  He had a ten-year association with Lincoln Center Institute where he developed arts education programming, lead workshops for public and private school administrators, teachers, teaching artists and elementary, middle and high school students, and was instrumental in creating programming and content for the Institute’s distance learning program—one of the first such programs in the U.S.A.
 
David Briskin attended the Indiana University School of Music where he studied voice, piano and choral conducting.  He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in orchestral conducting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a Master of Arts degree from Queens College, City University of New York.  He and his wife reside in New York City.