David Bernard
is recognized for his dramatic and incisive conducting in the United states and in over 20 countries on four continents. Currently, he serves as Music Director of both the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony and the Massapequa Philharmonic Orchestra, with both ensembles known for expanding audiences and increased critical acclaim. A multiple First prize winner of the Orchestral Conducting Competition of The American prize (most recently in 2018-19), he was described in the judges’ remarks as “Conducting from memory, David Bernard exhibits remarkable skill and considerable elan in a vibrant reading of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Not content with a cool, furrowed-brow approach to this music, his interpretation is alive to the nuances of color and, indeed, the dramatic arc, of this legendary work. His is a considerable achievement by any standard.”

Notable recent performances in New York City include Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Carnegie Hall and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. David Bernard has led symphony orchestras throughout the greater-New York City area: Brooklyn, Greater Newburgh, Island, Litha, Putnam and South Shore, as well as the New York Symphonic Arts ensemble and the orchestra of the Manhattan School of Music. During the 2019-20 season, he made his debuts with Connecticut’s Greenwich Symphony Orchestra and Iowa’s Dubuque Symphony Orchestra.

David Bernard is intensely devoted to the expansion of the audience for classical music, and his successful efforts include engaging families in the community through schools, presenting multi-media concerts and developing “Classical Music from the InsideOut,” wherein audience members sit among the orchestra during performances. InsideOut Concerts offer unsurpassed experiences and a heightened level of engagement for audiences of all ages, and have garnered acclaim from WQXR, Newsday, ClassicalWorld and The Epoch Times.

Devoted to the music of our own time, David Bernard has presented world premières of scores by Bruce Adolphe, Chris Caswell, John Mackey, Ted Rosenthal and Jake Runestad, while distinguished concert collaborators include Carter Brey, David Chan, Catherine Cho, Adrian Daurov, Pedro Díaz, Stanley Drucker, Bart Feller, Whoopi Goldberg, Judith Ingolfsson, Jessica Lee, Jon Manasse, Spencer Myer, Todd Phillips, Inbal Segev and Michael Stern.

David Bernard is a pianist and harpsichord/continuo player, and often leads Baroque works from the keyboard and performs in the dual role of soloist and conductor. He has also prepared new editions of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 1 and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and The Firebird Suite (1919 version), published his own editions of Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and Schumann’s Symphony No. 2, and written a textbook of music theory, The Structural Principles of Music. Mr. Bernard lectures on musicology, music history and musicianship, most recently “Musicianship in Performance,” an exploration of the decisions made when creating performances.

David Bernard is an alumnus of The Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, Stony Brook University, The Tanglewood Music Center and Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and studied with Sergiu Celibidache, David Lawton, Roger Nierenberg and Arthur Weisberg.

David Bernard’s discography includes over 25 albums spanning music from Vivaldi to Copland, and released on Amazon.com, iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody.