David Rayl

ABOUT

David Rayl is professor of choral music. He previously served the MSU College of Music as director of choral programs and senior associate dean for graduate studies and research. During his 21 years at MSU he mentored over 125 graduate students in choral conducting, many of whom are making significant contributions to choral music in the U.S. Under his baton the University Chorale has appeared at the national conference of the American Choral Directors Association (2007), the Central Division conference of ACDA (2006), and the national meeting of the College Music Society (2002). He also prepared the Chorale for eight sets of performances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and regularly served as guest conductor with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, leading large-scale choral-orchestral works.

Prior to joining the MSU faculty in 2002, he was director of choral activities at the University of Missouri-Columbia for 12 years, where he conducted the University Singers and Choral Union and taught in the undergraduate and graduate conducting programs. Under his direction, the University Singers sang at the national conference of the American Choral Directors Association (1995), Florilège Vocale in Tours, France (1998), and Maggio Musicale in Florence, Italy (2000).

Rayl has appeared as guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator throughout the United States and has presented at the national conferences of NCCO, NAfME, NATS, and MTNA, and regional and state conferences of ACDA. He has appeared at Carnegie Hall three times, leading performances of Beethoven Mass in C, the Fauré Requiem, and Schubert Mass in A-flat.

His international engagements include performances and presentations at the Church of the Madeleine in Paris and the Salzburg Cathedral; the National Center for the Performing Arts and the China Conservatory in Beijing; Maggio Musicale in Florence; the Busan International Choral Festival in South Korea; the national conference of the Associação Brasileira de Regentes de Coros, Goiania, Brazil; the VII Festival Internaçional de Música de Camera do Pará, in Belem, Brazil; the II Festival de Corais in Brasilia, Brazil; and the Painel Unicanto de Regencia Coral in Londrina, Brazil.

In 2022, the MSU University Chorale, under his direction, released two recordings: Virgil Thomson: The Shape-Note Hymn Arrangements and A Yuletide Offering: Carol Arrangements by John Cheetham, both released under the Blue Griffin Recording label.

Several of his articles have appeared in the Choral Journal, the Journal of the Conductors’ Guild, and Fontes Artes Musicae. A-R Editions of Madison, Wisconsin published his editions of “Marc-Antoine Charpentier’s Nine Settings of the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary” in the series Recent Researches in Music of the Baroque Era.

Rayl is the recipient of MSU’s Simmons Chivukula Award for Academic Leadership (2019), the University Distinguished Faculty Award (2013) and the College of Music’s Dortha J. and John D. Withrow Award for Excellence in Teaching (2009). The University of Missouri-Columbia awarded him the Provost’s Outstanding Junior Faculty Award (1993) and the Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence (1996).

He holds a B.M. from Illinois Wesleyan University; a M.M. from the University of Oklahoma; and a D.M.A. in choral conducting from the University of Iowa.

For information about the MSU choral program, please see Choral Conducting