David Neal, Chair
DAVID NEAL is a graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music and Cornell University, Associate Professor David Neal joined the Cortland faculty in 2001. He teaches applied voice, and was musical director of the mainstage musical theater productions from 2001 through 2007, conducting such shows as “Gypsy,” “She Loves Me,” “Carousel,” “Sweet Charity,” “Anything Goes,” “Chicago,” “Merrily We Roll Along,” and “A Little Night Music.” He was also a primary investigator for the New York State Music Fund grant, which was awarded to the Research Foundation on behalf of a large consortium of area arts presenters in 2006 and which has helped to fund many performances in the Cortland area.
As a singer, he has performed with the Baltimore Opera, the Opera Company of Philadelphia, the Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia, the Banff Centre, Annapolis Opera, Central City Opera, Interact Theatre, the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, and many other regional venues. He made his Lake George Opera debut this past summer as Simone in a double bill of Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi” and Michael Ching’s comic sequel, “Buoso’s Ghost,” in a production conducted by Mr. Ching. Other recent engagements have included Dick Deadeye in Gilbert and Sullivan’s “HMS Pinafore” with Syracuse Opera, and Colline in “La Bohème” and Sarastro in “The Magic Flute,” both with Tri-Cities Opera. Recent concert appearances have included the title role of Mendelssohn’s “Elijah,” Haydn’s “Nelson Mass,” Beethoven’s “Missa Solemnis,” and Dvorak’s “Stabat Mater.” An avid supporter of new music, David recently gave the world premieres of Lowell Liebermann’s “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening: Six Songs On Poems By Robert Frost,” and Robert Paterson’s “Winter Songs,” both of which he commissioned. He will perform the Paterson work at The Times Center in New York in January. Other upcoming engagements include a recital at Syracuse’s Everson Museum in October, which will be broadcast on WCNY later this year, and the role of the Commendatore in Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” with Opera Vivente in Baltimore.
David is the Artistic Director of the Arts at Grace concert series in Cortland, which raises funds from businesses, individual donations, and grants, and presents a wide variety of music to the community free of charge. He is married to Gailanne Mackenzie, who is a lecturer in the English Department.
E-mail: neald@cortland.edu