Fort Worth Baroque Society

Conductor
 

 David Keith  is Director of Graduate Studies for the Townsend School of Music and Director of the McAfee Institute for Graduate Studies in Church Music at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.  Assuming this position in August, 2010, Dr. Keith will give guidance to both the graduate program for the school of music as well as creating opportunities for studies in church music outside the curriculum of the university.  Prior to accepting this position, Keith served as Director of Music and Worship at Brentwood United Methodist Church in Brentwood, Tennessee from 2006-2010.
 

From 1979 to 2006, Dr. Keith was a  member of the faculty at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.  While at  Southwestern he served as the chair of the department of conducting and ensemble activities and the Robert L. Burton Chair of Conducting in the School of Church Music. In addition, he served as the conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Chorus.
 
Keith received his Bachelor of Science degree from William Jewell College in Liberty, Missouri, and his Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Southwestern Seminary. His dissertation was on The Sacred Choral Music of Gian Francesco Malipiero and Florent Schmitt.
 
Keith has done post-doctoral work at the Eastman School of Music, Westminster Choir College, the University of California at Los Angeles, and at the Staatliche Hochschule fur Musik in Stuttgart, where he studied with Dieter Kurz. He has also studied with Frieder Bernius (Kammerchor Stuttgart); Roger Wagner, director of the Roger Wagner Chorale; Sir David Willcocks, director of the Bach Choir of London; and Donald Neuen, director of choral activities at UCLA.
 
Dr. Keith has served as conductor and adjudicator of choirs in the United States, Europe, South America, Asia and Russia. He has appeared as guest conductor of the Fort Worth-Dallas Ballet in performances at Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth and at Fair Park in Dallas.
 
In addition, Keith has been guest conductor of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra on several occasions including Concerts in the Gardens, Home for the Holidays and an all Beethoven concert. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2006 conducting the Mozart Requiem with choruses from Hawaii, Texas, Indiana and New York and the New England Philharmonic.
 
Keith has also served as guest conductor of the Samara State Opera in Samara, Russia conducting performances of Musorgsky’s Boris Godunov and at the Aeteneo Paraguayo in Asuncion, Paraguay.

Under his leadership, the Southwestern Seminary Oratorio Chorus and the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra recorded fourteen critically acclaimed compact discs and can be frequently heard on XM Radio.

Recordings (with FWSO and FWCO):

FWSO - Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra
FWCO - Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra