Conducting

Mr. Edelfelt currently serves as director of the Chancel Choir (a 70 voice mixed choir) and Motet Choir (a hand-selected 12 voice women’s choir) at First Presbyterian Church, Libertyville, where he has been employed since 1998. His duties there include programming, rehearsing and leading both choirs in regular weekly worship, as well as conducting the Chancel Choir and orchestra in major choral works twice a year. In Libertyville, he has conducted such works as Handel's Messiah, Bach's Magnificat, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, Vaughan William's Five Mystical Songs, the Masses of Mozart, Schubert and Vierne, and the Requiems of Faure, Mozart, Scott, and Rutter.

Before joining the staff in Libertyville, David served Bethel UCC in Elmhurst as Minister of Music where he directed the adult choir and periodic festival choirs. In 2000, Mr. Edelfelt had the opportunity to travel abroad as assistant conductor to a touring choir that presented concerts in 5 European countries.

He has sung under such notable choral conductors as Robert Shaw, Erich Leinsdorf, Franz Allers, Fritz Mahler, Abraham Kaplan, Brock McElheran, Eve Queler, and Julius Rudel, and counts among his teachers Robert Shaw, Stanley Chapple, and Brock McElheran.

With his choral experience as both singer and conductor, and because of his extensive work with singers of all types and ages, he brings a unique combination of abilities and talents as choral director, including knowledge of and appreciation for all styles of choral music, both secular and sacred. He has also studied and developed numerous specific choral methods that address such topics as music learning in a choral setting, tonal production, diction and intonation especially for choral singing. His conducting is well-served by his emotive and communicative nature as a musician and as a person. His directing has been called "heartfelt", "wise", "exceptionally expressive" and "a lot of fun!" and has garnered him the appreciation of audiences and devotion from the choristers under his baton.

Though choral conducting is not his full-time work, his passion for both choral music and for people -- along with his call to music ministry -- keeps him immersed in it. In 2009, Mr. Edelfelt had the privilege of rehearsing and conducting the North Shore Choral Society and the Metropolis Symphony Orchestra in their spring concert, which featured works of Faure, Rachmaninoff and Lauridsen. He has also served as guest clinician for schools and community choral groups such as the Community Renewal Chorus of Chicago.

For information about his availability as choral clinician or guest conductor, you may contact him directly through this site.