With Daniel Baremboim's mother-in-law, Iris du Pre, being David's first piano teacher, it was perhaps inevitable David would be interested in conducting! Singers have compared his choral conducting with that of Sir David Willcocks, Vaughan Williams and Richard Hickox in their younger days.
David has a particular talent for getting the most out of unauditioned choirs within a very short length of time. David has derived great satisfaction from sharing techniques for managing the transition into the upper voice register, often the preserve of solo singers, with choral singers - it really isn’t as mystical as some would have us believe! - an aspect of choral training surprisingly often neglected even by conductors who have, or have had solo singing careers themselves. David is currently writing a booklet to make this accessible to everyone, entitled Singing made easy in 7 Steps: Discover bel canto essentials every choir singer should know, but are rarely shown. It will have a supporting recording.
Student performances included Saint-Saens' The Carnival of the Animals and Mozart Piano Concerto K.488 from the keyboard, Gilbert & Sullivan’s Trial by Jury, and Gounod’s opera Faust. He then directed the Great Missenden Choral Society 1990-95, having been their accompanist 1989-90. In 1992 he formed the A40 Orcherstra which became the fully professional A40 Concert Orchestra in 2001. Meanwhile, he then formed and conducted the A40 Choir which met weekly in Beaconsfield from 1995 to 2013, and now comes together in large number as a Bring ‘n’ Sing scratch choir for large scale concerts in London. He has also conducted the Spelthorne Choral Society, and the Potters Bar Community Choir.
An experienced Bring and Sing conductor, David was the conductor/editor of the then innovative and well received Concerts from Scratch edition of Handel’s The Messiah endorsed by Sir David Willcock's for whom David conducted workshops for Royal Albert Hall concerts. Other highlights have been a Bach St John Passion performance of which many a choral society would have been proud, prepared in just a day with only about 10% of the choir having ever sung the work before, and a totally unrehearsed (as far as the choir was concerned) and uncut performance (with professional orchestra and soloists) of Handel’s The Messiah in St Giles', Cripplegate.
David’s Messiah 4 Hailti and Messiah 4 Philippines, both of which he organised in only three weeks, each raised about £2,500 towards the DEC respective national appeals, while Messiah 4 Grenfell (Oct. 2017) raised nearly £6K.
Please click here for the list of repertoire David has conducted in public performances. Next page: David Meacock - tenor soloist
