David Howard is Associate Director of Choral Activities at the University of Oklahoma where he conducts the OU Men’s Glee Club and the OU Women’s Chorus. He also teaches graduate and undergraduate choral literature and choral conducting in addition to coordinating the annual Young Men’s Vocal Workshop and the Women’s Choral Leadership Workshop. His collegiate choirs, civic choruses, opera choruses, church choirs, secondary school choirs and festival choirs in the United States and Europe have been hailed for their artistry. The OU Women’s Chorus performed by invitation at the Oklahoma Music Educators Association annual conference in 2018.
Dr. Howard is the founder and artistic director Schola Cantorum Oklahoma, a professional choral ensemble dedicated to the performance of early music. Schola Cantorum Oklahoma has performed the complete Triumphs of Oriana (1601), and the music of Hapsburg Spain. Upcoming concerts will feature early Baroque music from the French court and Roland de Lassus’s Psalmi Davidis Poentitentiales (1584). Prior to his appointment at OU, Dr. Howard served on the faculty of the Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music and chorus master of Opera East Texas. He regularly serves as a clinician, consultant, and adjudicator.
Equally at home as a baritone soloist, Dr. Howard has performed nationally and internationally in oratorio and cantata presentations, and as a recitalist. His recently-released album of sacred music for voice, piano, and harp, entitled Consecration, on the Blue Griffin Records label, is available through streaming services.
Dr. Howard’s scholarly articles have appeared in the British academic music journal, Musical Times, and in The Choral Journal and ChorTeach. Moreover, his performing editions and choral arrangements are published by Alliance Music Publications.
He holds the Bachelor of Music Education degree and Master of Music degree in vocal performance from the University of Central Oklahoma and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in choral conducting from Michigan State University.
Dr. Howard and his wife, Andrea, have been married for twenty-five years and have four children. Their eldest son is an Oklahoma National Guardsman. Andrea is a talented wedding cake artist and business owner.
