David Feltner, Music Director

Conductor David Feltner has been acclaimed by The Boston Globe for leading performances of “profound expressivity” and praised for his “fervent advocacy” by The Boston Phoenix. Equally at home in the symphonic and operatic worlds, he has served as Associate Conductor and Chorus Master for Boston Lyric Opera and Cover Conductor for Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops.

He is in his twenty-fourth season as Music Director of the Chamber Orchestra of Boston, a group that has won accolades from audiences and critics alike for its polished performances and innovative programs. As Steven Ledbetter wrote in The Boston Music Intelligencer: “David Feltner put together a truly captivating program …one of the most completely satisfying concerts that I have heard this season.” As Michael Rocha wrote in The Boston Music Intelligencer: “All told, an immensely satisfying experience that left both heart and mind sated.” And as Geoffrey Wieting wrote in The Boston Music Intelligencer: “This performance will surely resound in many memories for a long time.”

Mr. Feltner has also been thrilling audiences in New Hampshire for the past seventeen seasons as Music Director of the Nashua Chamber Orchestra, where his leadership caused music critic Jeff Rapsis to write: “Conductor David Feltner brought the Nashua Chamber Orchestra to new places.” In 2022 he was appointed Music Director of the Merrimack Valley Philharmonic Orchestra.

He has been a guest conductor for several orchestras, including the Boston Civic Symphony, Brockton Symphony Orchestra, Adelphi Chamber Orchestra, Topeka Symphony Orchestra, Narragansett Bay Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic Community Orchestra and Intermezzo: The New England Chamber Opera Series.

An enthusiastic advocate for music of our time, Mr. Feltner has conducted numerous premieres and works by living composers, including Michael Abels, Peter Askim,  Anaís Azul, Brian Balmages, Jeremy Beck, Benedikt Bryden, Kenji Bunch, Oliver Caplan, Joe Clark, John Corigliano, Michael Daugherty, Halim El-Dahb, Adrienne Elisha, Stephen Feigenbaum, Lukas Foss, Michael Gandolfi, Paul Gay, Osvaldo Golijov, Henryk Gorecki, Lee Hoiby, Daniel Kellogg, Aaron Jay Kernis, Henning Kraggerud, Vuk Kulenovic, Libby Larsen, Steve Laven, Thomas Oboe Lee, Erik Lindgren, John McDonald, Jessie Montgomery, Max Mueller, Lisa Nardi, Mark O’Connor, Innocent Okechukwu, Krzysztof Penderecki, Einojuhani Rautavaara, Alexander Safford, Carlos Simon, Robert Edward Smith, Tison Street, Hilary Tann, Christopher Theofanidis, Scott Wheeler, Dinuk Wijeratne, Katrina Wreede, Evan Ziporyn and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Mr. Feltner is also an accomplished violist and composer. As a violist, he has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and the New York City Opera National Company. His recent orchestral compositions include Dreams and Awakenings for trumpet and strings, Piccolo Concerto (The Night Sky and Wind in the Trees) and From the Depths for viola and orchestra, which will be premiered in June 2023.

Musicians

Looking Toward Heaven, May 12, 2023

Violin 1
Charles Dimmick
Colin Davis
Heidi Braun-Hill

Violin 2
Colleen Brannen
Liana Zaretsky         
Yumi Okada

Board & Staff