UMass Boston

Choral Repertoire and Performance, Vocal Performance and Pedagogy, Music Education, Music Learning Theory

MM, New England Conservatory
BMus, University of Miami

David Giessow has been on the Applied Music faculty at The University of Massachusetts Boston since 2000 and conducts the University Chorus and Chamber Singers. Since 2007 he has simultaneously served as Choral Director. His other university responsibilities include teaching individual voice lessons, coordinating the voice faculty to organize voice classes and recitals and supervising all choral ensembles. Since 2003, Mr. Giessow has also served as the University Supervisor for student teaching internships in K-12 Music Classrooms, as administered by the College of Education and Human Development. In addition, he occasionally teaches Elementary General and Secondary Choral Music Teaching Methods. Beyond the university, Mr. Giessow conducts the Somerville Community Chorus, serves as Director of Music at the Hingham Congregational Church, and maintains a private voice teaching studio. 

Mr. Giessow's more than ten years' experience as a vocal music teacher in Massachusetts and Florida public schools includes leading high school and middle school choral programs; teaching high school chorus; men’s chorus; women’s chorus; jazz-vocal ensemble; show choir; music theory; middle school chorus; general music; string orchestra and beginning brass. High school choruses under Mr. Giessow’s direction consistently earned excellent and superior ratings at district and state festivals.  

While in graduate school at the New England Conservatory of Music, Mr. Giessow served as teaching assistant in voice and music theory. His responsibilities included teaching voice class for undergraduate non-voice majors, teaching a course in keyboard harmony and tutoring students in solfege. During this time, Mr. Giessow also served as assistant conductor to Lorna Cooke de Varon leading the NEC Conservatory Camerata and the Longy Chamber Singers at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA.  

As an undergraduate, David Giessow performed with the University of Miami Singers. At that time the ensemble took pride in performing vocal music from all historical periods and styles from Renaissance madrigals to avant-garde compositions and from Classical to Pop and Jazz. The ensemble performed extensively throughout south Florida and presented concert tours in California, Hawaii, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Austria, Germany and Switzerland. The ensemble also participated in a performance of Ives' fourth symphony at Carnegie Hall in New York City, together with the American Symphony Orchestra .  

Mr. Giessow studied Group Vocal Technique with Frauke Haasemann during several summers at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. He has sung in choruses led by Sir David Willcocks, Joseph Flummerfelt and Robert Shaw. He has also performed with the Robert Shaw Festival Chorus as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York and at the Princeton University Chapel. He has also studied choral conducting at the University of Southern California with Rodney Eichenberger and at the Eastman School of Music with Donald Neuen.  

While at the University of Miami on a full-tuition scholarship, Mr. Giessow was inducted into the Pi Kappa Lambda and Phi Kappa Phi Honor Societies. He completed his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education, graduating magna cum laude and with Departmental Honors in Choral Music and Music Education. He subsequently obtained his Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music with Academic Honors.  

David Giessow is an active lifetime member of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). He has served as treasurer for the Florida ACDA and as Chair of Repertoire and Standards for College and University Choruses on the Massachusetts ACDA Board. He has written articles for the Massachusetts Chapter of ACDA's newsletter, Mass Sings. His 2013 article “Finding Repertoire: Confessions of a Recovering Choral Kleptomaniac,” was selected for publication in the national ACDA's online journal, ChorTeach: Practical Teaching Ideas for Today’s Music Educator. Mr. Giessow is on the Board of Choral Arts New England (CANE) which is a grant making foundation supporting choral music in the region. He is also a member of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME).