Bio

David Bloom (he/him) is a conductor equally at home in orchestral repertoire, opera, and new music, noted for his “dazzling precision and grace” (San Francisco Chronicle), “intelligence, elegance, and passion” (Opera News), “ferocious and focused” (The New York Times) performances, and “breathtaking and inspired programming” (Shepherd Express). He dedicates his work to collaborating with artists and communities to inspire creativity, empathy, and joy.

In such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Kennedy Center, and Park Avenue Armory, Bloom has guest conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Composers Orchestra, Washington National Opera, Opera Omaha, Tri-Cities Opera, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Jacaranda, The Crossing, Ensemble Connect, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and Kronos Quartet and worked with soloists Dashon Burton, David Byrne, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Helga Davis, Nathalie Joachim, Isabel Leonard, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Courtney Love, Hila Plitmann, Dawn Upshaw, Andrew Yee, and many more. He conducted the opening of Lincoln Center’s 2024 Summer for the City festival with a program of operatic standards and original songs with drag artists Sapphira Cristál, Monét X Change, and Thorgy Thor.

Since 2023, he has been Artistic Director of Queer Urban Orchestra, the only orchestra in the Northeast rooted in the LGBTQ+ community. He has focused on increasing the orchestra’s impact and visibility, diversifying the programming, and collaborating with leading soloists. As a cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic, he has worked with such conductors as Susanna Mälkki, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, and Dalia Stasevska and soloists Brandford Marsalis, Anthony McGill, and Golda Schultz. He is Principal Conductor of the orchestras at New York University, where he conducts orchestral and operatic literature and teaches conducting.

Especially active as an opera conductor, among the productions Bloom has led are the American Opera Initiative (Washington National Opera), Don Giovanni (Teatro Grattacielo), Philip Glass’ Les enfants terribles (Opera Omaha), Die Zauberflöte (Tri-Cities Opera), Michael Gordon’s Acquanetta (Beth Morrison Projects), Kamala Shankaram’s Miranda (Tri-Cities Opera and Opera Omaha), Idomeneo and Amahl and the Night Visitors (NYU Opera), Dido and Aeneas (Kaufman Music Center), Matt Marks’ Mata Hari (PROTOTYPE Festival), and numerous productions for the American Opera Project, Opera on Tap, and Experiments in Opera, for whom he conducted Everything for Dawn, an opera by 10 composers created as a 10-episode TV series that streamed on the Opera Philadelphia Channel and PBS. He has premiered over 50 operas, including the orchestral version of Glass’ La Belle et la Bête with Jean Cocteau’s 1946 film.

In new work, he has conducted over 450 world premieres and collaborated with such composers as Clarice Assad, Courtney Bryan, Raven Chacon, John Corigliano, Donnacha Dennehy, Du Yun, inti figgis-vizueta, Michael Gordon, Nathalie Joachim, David Lang, Tania León, Andrew Norman, and Julia Wolfe. He is Co-Artistic Director of Contemporaneous, which he co-founded with composer Dylan Mattingly in 2010, and has built the group into one of the finest new music ensembles in the country, known for “leading new music toward its better self” (I Care If You Listen). In 2023, he conducted the group in the premiere of Mattingly’s six-hour opera Stranger Love at Disney Concert Hall, in a performance lauded as “exact and detailed, but also lively and openly dancing” (The New York Times). He is also Principal Conductor of Present Music, a legacy new music ensemble in Milwaukee that he led as Co-Artistic Director alongside violinist Eric Segnitz 2019-2024. His work has strengthened the organization, revitalizing its programming and making a “deliberate agenda of connecting to the city by venturing into unlikely venues, giving music nuanced context in each place” (Shepherd Express). In 2021, he led the ensemble in the world premiere of Raven Chacon’s Voiceless Mass, which went on to win the 2022 Pulitzer Prize.

Bloom has served as an artistic advisor for activist orchestra The Dream Unfinished since the organization’s founding in 2015. He taught at Kaufman Music Center for eight years, serving as conductor of new music youth orchestra Face the Music and launching the orchestra program at the Center’s public high school, Special Music School. He has been a clinician for Carnegie Hall’s Music Educators Workshop and led residencies at such institutions as Princeton University, Mannes School of Music, City University of New York, Williams College, and his alma mater, Bard College. He has recorded for the Sony Masterworks, Cantaloupe, New Amsterdam, Innova, New Focus, Starkland, Kairos, and Navona labels.

“Conductor David Bloom presided over the performance with dazzling precision and grace.” — San Francisco Chronicle

“David Bloom conducted Mattingly’s pitfall-ridden score with a sure hand. Occasionally, his hips betrayed an urge to groove, but even then he remained unflappably precise.” — The New York Times

“commanding and effective” — San Francisco Classical Voice

“Conductor David Bloom made an auspicious Washington National Opera debut at the podium, ably managing both the orchestra, spread out unevenly at the back of the stage, and the singers.” — Washington Classical Review

“Bloom led the ensemble to an exciting conclusion with some real rock star energy… beautiful conducting, with gestures imbued with meaning.” — Urban Milwaukee