David Hayes is a conductor with an unusually broad range of repertory, spanning the symphonic, oratorio/choral and operatic genres. He is currently the Music Director of the Mannes Orchestra, Director of Orchestral and Conducting Studies and Professor of Professional Practice at New School University’s Mannes School of Music in New York City, Music Director of The New York Choral Society, Music Director of The Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, Staff Conductor of the Curtis Symphony Orchestra. David served on the conducting staff of The Philadelphia Orchestra from 2001-2011, making his Philadelphia Orchestra subscription debut in 2003 at the request of Wolfgang Sawallisch. He was Music Director of The Philadelphia Singers (a professional vocal ensemble) from 1992 until May 2015 and also served as the Interim Director of Orchestral Studies at Temple University during the 2014-15 season. In addition, David has also served as a cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic as well as for Sir Andre Previn on the Curtis Symphony Orchestra’s 1999 European Tour with Anne-Sophie Mutter. The 2023-2024 Season will see David Hayes lead performances with the New York Choral Society and also the Mannes Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall as well as with the Martha Graham Dance Company at City Center. David Hayes and the Mannes Orchestra will be making World Premiere Recordings of Jennifer Higdon’s The Light That We Can Hear with Valerie Coleman, Julius Eastman’s 2nd Symphony and Alvin Singleton’s Across Differences. In Summer of 2025 David will return as guest conductor to Serenades CHORAL TRAVEL in Lisbon and the Alentejo region of Portugal. The 2022-2023 Season saw David leading performances with the the Mannes Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall featuring the World Premiere of Adolphus Hailstork’s Survive (Symphony No. 4), which they also recorded, and the New York Premieres of Jennifer Higdon’s The Light That We Can Hear(with Valerie Coleman) and Zhou Tian’s Concerto for Orchestra, a return to conduct the IU Symphony Orchestra in Bloomington, IN and concerts with the New York Choral Society with works of Ellington, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Adolphus Hailstork at David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center. In Summer of 2024, David once again appeared as guest conductor for with Serenades CHORAL TRAVEL in Lisbon, Coimbra, and Fátima, Portugal, and returned to the faculty of Chorus America’s Choral-Orchestral Conducting Academy at California State University, Fullerton after a three year pandemic hiatus. Recent seasons have seen David leading performances with The Mannes Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, The New York Choral Society at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, the Martha Graham Dance Company at New York’s City Center, and a series of concerts for Serenades CHORAL TRAVEL in Sicily. In addition, David Hayes led Orchestral Conducting Masterclasses at the Shanghai Conservatory in November 2019. His guest conducting engagements have included concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, The Orchestre Symphonique de Trois-Rivières, the Lancaster (PA) Symphony Orchestra, the Louisiana Philharmonic, The Relâche Ensemble, the Rutgers Orchestra, The Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Indiana University Philharmonia Orchestra, Opera Memphis, the Curtis Opera Theatre, the European Center for Opera and Voice (ECOV) in Ghent, Belgium; the Opera Company of Philadelphia; the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh; The Los Angeles Master Chorale and a Kennedy Center debut with the Washington Chorus and Orchestra (which includes members of the National Symphony Orchestra). David Hayes holds degrees from the University of Hartford (BM in Musicology) and The Curtis Institute of Music (Diploma in Orchestral Conducting) where he studied conducting with Otto-Werner Mueller. He also studied conducting with Charles Bruck at the Pierre Monteux School in Maine.