David Fetler
Senior Choirmaster Emeritus
David Fetler was born in Riga, Latvia. His mother studied in Moscow to be a concert singer before raising her family of 13 children. She trained all of them, and they had their own family choir and orchestra which traveled in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland for six years giving concerts, principally in churches. The family moved to the United States when David was 10.
David studied at the Westminster Choir College, Princeton, N.J. and at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. At Juilliard he studied with Fritz Mahler, and for three summers with the French conductor Pierre Monteux. He came to Rochester in 1951 and received his doctorate from the Eastman School of Music in 1956. He directed the Eastman Singers, on tour, and at the American Music Festival concerts in Kilbourn Hall and Eastman Theatre.
David was a member of the Eastman School's conducting staff from 1956 to 1964. In 1964, he organized the Rochester Chamber Orchestra, composed of members of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1966, he became the director of the Hotchstein Music School Sinfonia and the Rochester Opera Theater, and has been director of the Nazareth College Choir. David continues to be active with the Festival Singers in the annual "Messiah" at the Hochstein Music School, concerts with the Rochester Chamber Orchestra, the Greece Symphony, as well as the Camerata Vocal and Instrumental Ensemble.