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 degree from Drake University (Des Moines, Iowa), a Master of Music degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Missouri-Columbia, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Conducting and Pedagogy from the University of Iowa. His teachers include Timothy Stalter, David Rayl, and Aimee Beckmann-Collier. Dr. Puderbaugh also is Artistic Director of Chamber Singers of Iowa City, an ensemble that focuses on major choral works, having recently performed Beethoven’s Mass in C Major, Haydn’s The Creation, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil. He made his Carnegie Hall debut with CSIC, conducting Haydn’s Missa Cellensis. 

 

Dr. Puderbaugh’s current research interest centers on Estonian choral music, a fascination that resulted in a Fulbright Fellowship to conduct dissertation research on that country’s national song festivals during the Soviet occupation. He served as 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 present-day aspects of the festivals. Dr. Puderbaugh conducted the Estonian chamber choir Voces Musicales (now Voces Tallinn) in the album A Black Birch in Winter: American and Estonian Choral Music (MSR Classics, 2019), which was awarded 2019 Recording of the Year by the Estonian Choral Association. He and the choir were headline performers at the 2023 College Music Society International Conference. Dr. Puderbaugh is interested in bringing the Baltic region’s vast choral treasury to the United States through performance as well as the creation of performing and critical editions. 

 

Dr. Puderbaugh is active in several professional organizations. He currently serves as past president of the Midwestern region of the American Choral Directors Association. He served as editor of the Recorded Sound Reviews column for ACDA’s Choral Journal, and as editor of Melisma, the newsletter of North Central ACDA. Additionally, Dr. Puderbaugh is a member of the National Collegiate Choral Organization, College Music Society, and Pi Kappa Lambda music honor society. In addition to his conducting and scholarly activities, Dr. Puderbaugh performs as a tenor soloist. His recent solo credits include Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s The Creation, Mozart’s C-Minor Mass, and the Evangelist role in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Schütz’s St. John Passion. In Estonia, Dr. Puderbaugh has premiered several works by contemporary Estonian composers in the annual new music festival Eesti Muusika Päevad, broadcast on national radio and television, and appeared in performances of Orazio Vecchi’s madrigal comedy L’Amfiparnaso, sponsored by the national concert series Eesti Kontsert.