David Neiweem is entering his tenth season as Music Director of the Burlington Choral Society. His association with the chorus has brought praise from audiences and critics alike for memorable performances of works including Orff's Carmina Burana, Handel’s Israel in Egypt, J.S. Bach’s Passion According to St. Matthew, Haydn’s Creation, Beethoven’s Mass in C, and Ninth Symphony, Faure, Mozart and Verdi’s Requiem Masses, Bruckner’s Mass in E Minor, Vaughan William’s Serenade to Music, and Honneger’s King David, among others.

Neiweem was born in Chicago and educated both in the U.S. and Europe. He was trained as both a singer and keyboard player and enjoyed for many years a career as a professional concert singer. His singing debut in Stuttgart, Germany, was in the celebrated Liederhalle. Subsequent performances in Paris and Vienna led to further engagements both in France and especially in Austria, where he remains an active performer. Known for performances of new music, he has recorded modern works for the Süddeutscher Rundfunk (Germany), Österreichischer Rundfunk (Austria), and in the U.S. for American Public Radio, National Public Radio, and Public Radio International.

Maestro Neiweem has sung in and directed choirs throughout his career as well. As a young singer, he was a member of the distinguished Chicago Symphony Chorus, where he performed under such conductors as Georg Solti, James Levine and Carlo Maria Giulini. He was invited in 1985 by the late Margaret Hillis, founding director of the ensemble, to attend a season of the CSC as a conducting student and intern. From then on, Neiweem has increasingly devoted himself to his work as a conductor, to consistently warm critical acclaim. He has conducted countless festivals and performances of community, college and university choral and orchestral organizations in the U.S., Canada, Austria and Germany. He has guest conducted the Vermont Symphony Orchestra in several programs of Viennese Music. He has prepared choirs for many performances with the VSO of works such as Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Dave Brubeck's La Fiesta de lo Posada, Holst’s Planets, Debussy's Fetes, and Berlioz’ L’enfance du Christ. He prepared the chorus for Duke Ellington's Sacred Concert, performed at the 2003 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival.

Neiweem has been honored by the municipal government of Pitten, Austria, for his engagement in the cultural life of Lower Austria. He was chosen to receive a prestigious study fellowship from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (D.A.A.D). He has been invited to adjudicate competitions that range from the New England Music Festival Competitions to the National Association of Singing Artist Auditions. Neiweem has taught seminars and given master classes in Schubert Songs and German Romantic Songs for the Institut für europäische Studien in Vienna, Austria, and for Westminster Choir College Summer Session in Princeton, New Jersey. He team-taught a course in with colleagues in Budapest, Hungary, in concert music of the Austro-Hungarian empire. He has served on the artist-faculty of the New York State Summer School for the Performing Arts in Saratoga, and the University of Wisconsin Summer Music School in Madison. In 1982, Neiweem was appointed to the music faculty at the University of Vermont where he currently serves as Chair of the Music Department. He is in his fourteenth year as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the International Music Festival in Pitten, Austria, and serves as Music Director of the First Congregational Church in Burlington,Vt.

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