David Puderbaugh is Director of Choral Studies at the University of Iowa, where he conducts Kantorei, teaches graduate choral conducting, advises DMA theses, and administers the choral program. A native Iowan, Dr. Puderbaugh holds a Bachelor of Music Education from Drake University, a Master of Music in Choral Conducting from the University of Missouri–Columbia, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting and Pedagogy from the University of Iowa. His teachers include Timothy Stalter, David Rayl, and Aimee Beckmann-Collier.

 

Dr. Puderbaugh also served as Music Director of Chamber Singers of Iowa City for 24 years. The ensemble focuses on major choral works, and under his leadership performed countless works both large and small. Highlights included Pärt’s Passio, Haydn’s The Creation, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil. He made his Carnegie Hall debut with Chamber Singers of Iowa City, conducting Haydn’s Missa Cellensis. He currently serves as choir director of the Congregational Church U.C.C. in Iowa City.

Dr. Puderbaugh’s current research focuses on Estonian choral music, an interest that led to a Fulbright Fellowship supporting dissertation research on Estonia’s national song festivals during the Soviet occupation. He served as a consultant for the educational DVD release of the documentary film The Singing Revolution (Sky Films Incorporated, 2008) and as primary consultant for To Breathe as One (2013). Both films explore the history and contemporary significance of the festivals. Dr. Puderbaugh conducted the Estonian chamber choir Voces Musicales (now Voces Tallinn) on the album A Black Birch in Winter: American and Estonian Choral Music (MSR Classics, 2019), which received the Estonian Choral Association’s 2019 Recording of the Year award. He and the choir were headline performers at the 2023 College Music Society International Conference. Dr. Puderbaugh is committed to bringing the Baltic region’s rich choral repertoire to the United States through performance and the creation of both performing and critical editions.

Dr. Puderbaugh is active in several professional organizations. He has served as president of Midwestern ACDA, editor of the Recorded Sound Reviews column for ACDA’s Choral Journal, and editor of Melisma, the newsletter of North Central ACDA. He currently serves on the editorial board of NCCO’s Choral Scholar. He is also a member of the College Music Society and the Pi Kappa Lambda music honor society.

 

In addition to his conducting and scholarly activities, Dr. Puderbaugh performs as a tenor soloist. Recent solo credits include Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s The Creation, Mozart’s C-Minor Mass, and the Evangelist roles in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Schütz’s St. John Passion. In Estonia, he has premiered several works by contemporary Estonian composers at the annual new music festival Eesti Muusika Päevad, with performances broadcast on national radio and television. He has also appeared in performances of Orazio Vecchi’s madrigal comedy L’Amfiparnaso, sponsored by the national concert series Eesti Kontsert.