David Bowser

Music Director and Conductor

David Bowser, Music Director and Conductor, David Bowser has conducted music for ballet, opera, film and the concert stage and has performed in Canada, the United States, France, Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. He has been music director of the Polyphonia Chamber Ensemble, the Hart House Singers, the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Brantford Symphony Orchestra. He has also served as assistant conductor of the Quebec Symphony Orchestra and the Nova Scotia Opera. He has conducted the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, the Waterloo Chamber Players, the Hart House Orchestra, the Cathedral Bluffs Symphony and the 2005 National Youth Orchestra Festival Orchestra in Windsor. He has appeared on both national language networks of the CBC television and radio, and has recorded music for the Oprah Winfrey Show including the ABC primetime special, Legends. In Europe, he has performed on the podium of the Sophia Festival Orchestra in Bulgaria, the Kromeriz Symphony Orchestra in the Czech Republic, the Maribor Philharmonic Orchestra in Slovenia, the Bratislava Symphony Orchestra and East Slovak State Opera in Kosice, Slovakia.

Following studies in flute with Nicole Saumon at the Conservatoire de Tours in France he earned a Master of Music degree with High Distinction in composition from the University of Toronto and the Prix du Conservatoire and the Diplome d'Etudes superieures II in conducting from the Conservatoire de Musique du Quebec in Montreal. He has also studied voice in Montreal with Marie Daveluy. He completed his formal studies in Austria, studying orchestral and operatic conducting at the Musikhochschule in Graz with Raffi Armenian and Wolfgang Bozic, and at the Musikhochschule in Vienna with Leopold Hager. While residing in Vienna, he consulted original manuscripts in the national music archives and gained from private studies and consultation with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle and Dennis Russell Davies. He has participated in many conducting clinics and masterclasses with Eric Ericson, Georg Tintner and Gustav Meier, among others. He attended the conducting classes of Gianluigi Gelmetti at the renowned Academia Chigiana in Siena, Italy. He is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including the Ontario Arts Council's Chalmers Performing Arts Grant and the Canada Council's Professional Development Grant.

Currently David is Music Director and Conductor of the North York Symphony Orchestra in Toronto. He is an active guest conductor, composer, and vocal coach as well as a visual artist.