Maestro David Close
DAVID CLOSE, Conductor, has a strong reputation for high quality concerts throughout Nassau and Queens and we are proud to have him as our new Music Director.
Maestro Close is an active composer and arranger who is currently the organist at the former Temple Emanu-el now, Temple Am Echad, Lynbrook. He was organist also of Temple Beth Am, Merrick.
David Close is the Artistic Director and Conductor of The Oratorio Society of Queens and founder, Artistic Director and Conductor of The Orchestral Arts Ensemble of Queens. He is a former Music Director of the United Choral Society of Nassau, LI.
Maestro Close studied conducting with John Castellini, founder and first Music Director of the Queens College Choral Society, and Laszlo Halasz, founder and first Music Director of the New York City Opera, and assisted Maurice Peress in the training of young conductors at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. For many years, he served as conductor and vocal coach for the Queens College Opera Theater under the direction of the distinguished American opera composer and conductor, Hugo Weisgall and has conducted performances for the Singers’ Theater of Westchester, the Manhattan Opera, and the New York Lyric opera and guest-conducted Summer Sings for the New York Choral Society and the Masterwork Chorus of New Jersey. He was recently invited to conduct a choral festival for the Long Island chapter of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM). The 50th anniversary of the Queens chapter of the American Guild of Organists saw him leading the forces of the combined choirs in a performance that included a specially commissioned work by Queens-based composer, Bruce Saylor.
David Close is the founder and Artistic Director Emeritus of Musica Reginae Productions, a professional classical music production arts organization in Queens. In the Summer of 2000, Maestro Close was invited to create and conduct “An Evening of Opera” for the gala opening night of the newly renovated George Seuffert Band Shell in Forest Park with the voices and orchestral forces of Musica Reginae. That year, he also conducted, at the request of then Borough President Claire Shulman, the Oratorio Society of Queens and the Queens Symphony Orchestra in a Millennial Concert at the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Maestro Close subsequently returned to Forest Park as guest conductor for a concert of the Queens Symphony’s Summer Park series.
As a pianist, Maestro Close has appeared as recitalist and also as a collaborative artist in vocal and chamber music recitals. He regularly toured with the “Paul Whiteman Historic 1924 Aeolian Hall Concert” throughout the US and Canada. He also appeared as pianist in a performance of George Antheil’s 1929 succès de scandale, “Ballet mécanique” at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
In addition to recital work as organist, Maestro Close has held posts at Holy Cross Episcopal, Brooklyn, All Saint’s Episcopal, Bayside, St Thomas Apostle, Woodhaven. He is currently Music Director and Organist at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, Forest Hills with its 50-voice choir that in addition to its liturgical work, presents an annual Christmas Concert with professional soloists and full orchestra.
Maestro David Close
Benjamin Arendsen
Music Director & Conductor