DAVID AKS
CONDUCTOR • CELLIST • EDUCATOR
ABOUT
DAVID AKS has a wide range of operatic, choral and orchestral experience. He served as Assistant Conductor to Seiji Ozawa for Tosca at Tanglewood, and been Music Director for numerous productions including The Marriage of Figaro, The Impressario, The Magic Flute, Cosi Fan Tutte The Coronation of Poppea, Trouble in Tahiti, L'Enfant et les Sortileges, Sweeney Todd, Into The Woods, The Tender Land, Suor Angelica, The Mikado, Amahl and the Night Visitors and The Medium. He has conducted several highly acclaimed Opera Highlights programs as part of the Concerts-in-the-Park series in Los Angeles. For 32 years Mr. Aks taught at the prestigious OperaWorks summer workshop where he coached, conducted and taught classes in conducting and dramatic scene analysis. He has also taught at the Altenburg Musiktheater Akademie in Germany.
"...an outstanding
singers' maestro."
– Zeffin Quinn Hollis
International Singing Career
Founder of the Singing Actors' Lab
Mr. Aks has held professional conducting positions in New York, Florida and Colombia, South America. He recently retired as a Full Professor, after 30 years, from the Music Department at California State University, Northridge. During his time at CSUN he served as Artistic Director/Conductor of the CSUN Opera Theatre and the CSUN Symphony Orchestra, as well as Instructor of Cello and Chamber Music. Recent guest conducting appearances have included the Fresno Philharmonic, The Antelope Valley Symphony and the Black Sea Philharmonic in Romania.
Mr. Aks has studied at Indiana University, Oberlin College, the Minnesota Opera Institute, the Conducting Class of Franco Ferrara in Siena, Italy, and at the Tanglewood Festival (studies with Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Colin Davis and Andre Previn).
In addition to his activities in the fields of Opera and Chamber Music, Mr. Aks is an enthusiastic participant in the world of Celtic fiddling and can be found jamming at various Irish pubs in the Los Angeles area.
