David Hayes (Conducting ’89) Appointed Music Director of Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia

David Hayes (Conducting ’89) has been appointed music director of the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia at the start of its 2024–25 season. Mr. Hayes will conduct his first concerts on October 4 and 6 in the Perelman Theater at the Kimmel Center, replacing Belgian conductor Dirk Brossé, who recently stepped down after 14 seasons as the ensemble’s music director. Currently serving as the music director of the New York Choral Society, and director of orchestral and conducting studies at the Mannes School of Music, Mr. Hayes graduated from Curtis as a student of famed conducting pedagogue Otto-Werner Mueller.

“The things that I’ve done in my career: I had a professional chorus, high-level conservatory orchestra, I have a volunteer chorus in New York, all of those things,” says Mr. Hayes. “The one thing that was always missing from it was a professional orchestra. And it was a chance to not have to do what I’ve done for 30-plus years with the Curtis or Mannes—train an orchestra. It was a chance to just make music with an orchestra. And that really appealed to me. I don’t need to do anything except, ‘Let’s just make some good music.’”

He was a staff conductor and assistant to Wolfgang Sawallisch at the Philadelphia Orchestra from 2001–11, and, for 23 years, music director of the Philadelphia Singers from 1992 until 2015. Mr. Hayes also holds a Bachelor of Music degree in musicology from the University of Hartford and has studied conducting with Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School in Maine. He has served as a cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic as well as for Sir André Previn on the Curtis Symphony Orchestra’s 1999 European tour with Anne-Sophie Mutter. His 2023–24 season has seen him lead performances with the New York Choral Society, the Mannes Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, and with the Martha Graham Dance Company at City Center.

Maestro Hayes conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia on October 4 at 7:30 p.m. and October 6 at 2:30 p.m. in Ludwig van Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture, Adolphus Hailstork’s Sagrada (Sonata da Chiesa No. 2), Michael Torke’s December and, with soloist Michelle Cann (Piano ’13, ArtistYear ’15), Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies at Curtis, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5. For more information, visit the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia’s official website.

Read the article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Visit David Hayes’ official website.

Photo Credits of David Hayes: 1.) Courtesy of Mannes School of Music. 2.) Alejandro A. Alvarez of the Philadelphia Inquirer. 3.) Mr. Hayes as a student at Curtis conducting the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in a rehearsal at Field Concert Hall; David Swanson. 4.) Jennifer Taylor.