BIO
Dr. David Hahn is a conductor, educator, and artistic leader whose work is distinguished by imaginative programming, expressive performances, and advocacy for contemporary choral music. His artistry is marked by meaningful collaboration, the cultivation of singers with technical and artistic versatility, and thematic performances that are both thought-provoking and emotionally compelling. Through teaching, performance, collaboration, and mentorship, Hahn seeks to engage students and audiences alike while fostering the growth of emerging choral artists.
Hahn serves as the Paul S. and Jean R. Amos Distinguished Chair in Music and Director of Choral Activities at the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University. In this role, he leads a dynamic choral program of undergraduate, graduate, and community singers, conducting the Schwob Singers, Repertory Singers, and Choral Union; administering the graduate program in choral conducting; and teaching graduate conducting, choral literature, and undergraduate conducting. He is also the founding artistic director and administrator of the annual CSU Choral Conducting Workshop. Prior to his appointment at Columbus State, he served as Visiting Director of Choral Activities at the University of Toledo.
Under Hahn’s leadership, the Schwob Singers have earned repeated state and national recognition for their artistry and versatility. Recent invitations include performances at the 2025 National Collegiate Choral Organization National Conference in Fullerton, California; the 2025 South Carolina ACDA State Conference; the 2025 GMEA In-Service Conference; and the 2024 Georgia ACDA State Conference. In 2023, the ensemble was also invited to serve as the resident choir for the graduate conducting masterclass at the NCCO National Conference, reflecting the choir’s high level of responsiveness and musical refinement.
A passionate advocate for living composers, Hahn has centered much of his artistic work on the commissioning, performance, and championing of new choral music. He has commissioned and premiered works by Adrian Wong, Han Lash, Karen Siegel, Katerina Gimon, Michael Gilbertson, Trevor Weston, William Banfield, David Jex, and Stephen Feigenbaum, and has led innovative projects including Jocelyn Hagen’s The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, the first multi-sensory work of its kind. His programming reflects a commitment to music of urgency, substance, and contemporary relevance while remaining grounded in the broader choral tradition. For his 2018 performance of John Corigliano’s Fern Hill with the Eastman Repertory Singers, Hahn received The American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award in the college/university division.
Hahn’s broader conducting work reflects a range that extends beyond the choral podium. With CSU’s Choral Union, Hahn has led numerous major works with orchestra, including the Levin completion of Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Missa in Angustiis, Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb, Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna, Hailstork’s I Will Lift Up Mine Eyes, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Price’s Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, and Dett’s Chariot Jubilee. As Artistic Director and Conductor of the Orchard Park Chorale, he also conducted Lambert’s The Rio Grande, Vaughan Williams’s Toward the Unknown Region, and Finzi’s In Terra Pax. At the Eastman School of Music, he served as co-conductor of the Graduate Orchestra, leading symphonic repertoire by Brahms, DvoÅ™ák, Mahler, Strauss, and Stravinsky. His operatic conducting includes scenes from Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Le nozze di Figaro as a Conducting Fellow at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, as well as the 2020 University of Michigan concert performance premiere of William Banfield’s Edmonia.
In addition to his university work, Hahn remains active as a guest conductor, adjudicator, and clinician throughout the United States. His conducting appearances include collaborations with the Wintergreen Music Festival, The Dessoff Choirs, the Schwob Philharmonic, the Orchard Park Chorale, and ensembles at the University of Cincinnati, the Manhattan School of Music, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Michigan. He has also led honor choirs in Georgia and Ohio and worked with young artists in a variety of school, festival, and collegiate settings.
​Hahn brings to his work a broad range of experience with singers across educational settings, including significant work with adolescent musicians. He previously served as Director of Choirs at Nichols School in Buffalo, New York, where he led multiple ensembles and founded the Nichols Choral Festival and Invitational. He also served as assistant conductor of the Michigan Youth Chamber Singers. Alongside his collegiate teaching, he has worked with young musicians through honor choirs, festivals, camps, and private instruction, experiences that continue to inform his approach to pedagogy, mentorship, and ensemble building.
Hahn’s work as a conductor is also informed by his experience as a singer, having performed with distinguished ensembles including The Washington Chorus, the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus, Chicago Choral Artists, VOICES, First Inversion, and the Eastman-Rochester Chorus. He holds graduate degrees in conducting from the University of Michigan and the Eastman School of Music, and an undergraduate degree in vocal performance from Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Illinois. He currently serves on the National Board of the National Collegiate Choral Organization and as Vice Chair of the Alumni Board of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance at the University of Michigan.
Hahn’s major teachers include Eugene Rogers, William Weinert, Brad Lubman, Robert Swensen, Terry Strandt, and Tim Stafford. He has also received mentoring and teaching from Mark Gibson, Victor Yampolsky, David Hayes, Duain Wolfe, Andrew Megill, Lucinda Carver, and Erin Freeman.
