David McDade

pianist / conductor / coach

David McDade is on the staff of Seattle Opera as Head of Coach-Accompanists and works with the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program. He was Music Administrator for Washington National Opera from 1997 through 2002, serving as assistant conductor, accompanist and prompter. He made his conducting debut with Washington in a matinee of The Crucible and joined the company on their first tour of Japan.

Mr. McDade came to Seattle with extensive experience having conducted works ranging from Handel's Messiah and Gluck's Orfeo to Copland's The Tender Land and Britten's Phaedra. He first worked in opera in his home town of Portland, Oregon, as a member of the Portland Opera staff from 1986 to 1990. There he supervised a Portland Opera production for the 1990 Rotary International Convention, arranging and conducting a medley from Kern’s Show Boat.

In the span of his career he has worked with Annapolis, Philadelphia, and Frederick, Maryland, opera companies as well as with the Ash Lawn Highland Summer Festival, for which was Resident Conductor. Mr. McDade graduated from Portland State University with a Bachelor of Music in Voice and has a Master’s of Music in Conducting from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.

< August 2009 >