David Bernard

David Bernard is an American orchestral conductor. David Bernard has gained recognition for his dramatic and incisive conducting in the United States and in over 20 countries on four continents. He serves as Music Director of the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony and the Massapequa Philharmonic. A multiple First Prize winner of the Orchestral Conducting Competition of The American Prize, Bernard was described in the judges’ remarks as, “a first-rate conductor…phenomenal performance…masterly in shaping, phrasing, technique and expressivity.” Lucid Culture praised Bernard’s recent Lincoln Center performance of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring”: “Conducting from memory, David Bernard led a transcendent performance. Segues were seamless, contrasts were vivid and Stravinsky’s whirling exchanges of voices were expertly choreographed.” Bernard’s complete recorded Beethoven symphony cycle was praised by Fanfare magazine for its “intensity, spontaneity, propulsive rhythm, textural clarity, dynamic control, and well-judged phrasing”. His recent premiere recording of a new edition of Stravinsky’s '"The Rite of Spring" was praised by Gramophone as “committed and forceful…(with) thrilling moments”. David Bernard has worked closely with Clinton F. Nieweg, retired librarian of the Philadelphia Orchestra, on editing new editions of Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” and “The Firebird Suite—1919 Version”, which has been published by Edwin F. Kalmus in 2016. In addition, he has published his own editions of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, K. 622, and Schumann’s Symphony No. 2, Op. 61. Particularly active throughout the greater New York City area, David Bernard has appeared as a guest conductor with orchestras including the Brooklyn Symphony, the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Litha Symphony, Manhattan School of Music, the Massapequa Philharmonic, the New York Symphonic Arts Ensemble, the Putnam Symphony and the South Shore Symphony. Devoted to the music of our own time, he has presen