Research Expertise and Interest
music, directing, orchestral conducting technique, music ensemble
Research Description
David Milnes serves as Music Director of the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Eco Ensemble, Berkeley’s internationally recognized professional new music ensemble in residence. In his early years, he studied piano, organ, clarinet, cello and voice, and briefly entertained a career as a jazz pianist, appearing with Chuck Mangione, Gene Krupa, Billy Taylor and John Pizzarelli. He received advanced degrees in conducting from SUNY Stony Brook and the Yale School of Music, studying with Charles Rosen, Otto-Werner Müller, Herbert Blomstedt, Erich Leinsdorf and Leonard Bernstein, and then won the prestigious Exxon Conductor position with the San Francisco Symphony at age 27, where he was hailed as "one of the major new conducting talents of our day." (Byron Belt). In San Francisco his award-winning educational programs resulted in a nationally televised broadcast of a Concerts for Kids documentary; he also conducted subscription, contemporary and pops concerts. On twenty four hours notice he was called to step in for an ailing Edo de Waart, conducting a national broadcast of Elgar's Violin Concerto with Pinchas Zukerman as soloist. He served also as Music Director of the acclaimed San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra, which he led on an international tour during which he was awarded the Prize of the City of Vienna for his performance of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra..
David Milnes is a frequent guest conductor in Russia and the Baltics. He has appeared with the Novosibirsk Philharmonic and served as a principal guest conductor of the Latvian National Symphony, where he led a Wagner program featuring tenor John David DeHaan, an all-Berlioz program that Berlioz himself conducted in Riga, and a special performance of Steve Reich's The Desert Music that was attended by the President of Latvia and the American ambassador. Other engagements have included appearances with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Nice at the MANCA Festival; in Mexico at the International Festival “El Callejón del Ruido” with the Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra; in Argentina with Ensemble 34, in Russia with the Novosibirsk Symphony Orchestra, and with the Oregon, Columbus, Anchorage and Cheyenne Symphonies He has led the UCBSO and Eco Ensemble on four European tours since 2014, each featuring new music from Berkeley composers. In performance, he has collaborated with Pinchas Zukerman, Chanticleer, Frederica von Stade, Dawn Upshaw, Anna Netrebko, Bill T. Jones, and Paul Hillier, and has appeared at the Venice Biennale and Santa Fe, Tanglewood, Aspen, Other Minds and Monadnock music festivals.
A dedicated proponent of new music, Mr. Milnes has led many performances with Earplay, the Empyrean Ensemble, Composers Inc., and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. As Music Director of the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players he commissioned and premiered new works from around the world from such composers as Phillipe Leroux, Liza Lim, Edmund Campion, Shulamit Ran, Zhou Long, Kui Dong, Earl Kim, Jorge Liderman and Cindy Cox. With the Eco Ensemble he has conducted works by Pierre Boulez, Giorgi Ligeti, Jonathan Harvey, Beat Furrer, Harrison Birtwistle, Franck Bedrossian, Andrew Imbrie and Ivan Fedele. Milnes received a Grammy nomination for his recording of John Anthony Lennon's Zingari, and has also recorded albums of music by James Newton, Edmund Campion, Pablo Ortiz and Jorge Liderman with the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players.
As Music Director of the Riga Independent Opera Company as well as the opera and orchestral programs at SUNY Purchase and Southern Methodist University, his varied operatic repertoire has included productions of Die Fledermaus, Eugene Onegin, Die Zauberflöte, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Bohème, The Consul, Gianni Schicchi, Suor Angelica and The Threepenny Opera, among others. Opera News wrote of his 1997 performances of Mozart's Idomeneo at The Curtis Institute of Music: "Shaping a persuasive interpretation notable for its drive and drama, conductor David Milnes drew superb playing from the Curtis Institute Orchestra. " His Sondheim revue program aired nationally on A&E television.
David Milnes became a Professor in the Department of Music at Berkeley in 1996 after holding posts at SUNY Purchase and Southern Methodist University, as well as teaching at the Juilliard School, the Curtis Institute, the Mannes School and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In addition to his many performing activities, he indulges in his first musical love by teaching a popular course in jazz history each summer. A noted teacher of conducting, his students have held posts around the world, including recent appointments to the Hamburg Staatsoper, the Dallas Opera, and the Cincinnati, Omaha, Minnesota and National Symphony Orchestras. Currently he is serving his second term as chair of the Department of Music.