Through an international array of orchestral, opera, and contemporary music performances, conductor DAVID SEARLE has forged a dynamic career on both sides of the Atlantic. In 2007, David Searle was appointed Director of Orchestral Activities and Conducting Studies at the Benjamin T. Rome School of Music of The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, where he serves as Music Director of the University Symphony Orchestra and Professor of Conducting. From 2003 to 2007, Mr. Searle servied as Chief Conductor of the Helsinki University Symphony Orchestra. Of his debut concert, the Capitol City News of Helsinki wrote that he was the orchestra's “veritable golden thread. He is an excellent conductor; interpretively decisive, expressively generous and, judging from all appearances, has an abundant ability to communicate with musicians.”

As one of the few Americans to have received the Diploma in Conducting with Highest Honors from the Sibelius Academy in Finland, Mr. Searle has conducted the Helsinki Philharmonic, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Oulu Symphony Orchestra, the Joensuu City Orchestra, the Pori Sinfonietta, and the Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra. In 2002, Mr. Searle was a guest conductor and teacher for the Barratt Due Musikkinstitutt Symphony Orchestra in Oslo, Norway.

In addition to his regular appearances in Helsinki during the 2004-2005 season, which included music by Handel, Sibelius, Bruckner, Haydn, Debussy, and Finnish composer Toivo Kuula, Mr. Searle conducted the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra in Iowa. He also led the Helsinki University Symphony Orchestra on a critically acclaimed Finnish tour. The Savo News (Kuopio) wrote that “David Searle has a clearly splendid rapport with his young players. His conducting is a wonderful combination of authority, warmth and vision.” He also served as guest conductor and teacher at the Oulu Conservatory in Finland and debuted in summer 2005 with the Kristiansand (Norway) Symphony Orchestra on a regional Norwegian tour.

The 2005-2006 season included appearances at the Kerava Opera with Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow and the Lahti Opera with Donizetti's “L'Elisir d'Amore”. Of the Lahti performance, the Helsinki News wrote: “The performance's real central character was conductor David Searle, who held the opera's entirety outstandingly well in hand .” David Searle was recently featured on Finnish Radio's series “Migratory Birds of Music”, which highlights the careers of foreign musicians who have made their homes in Finland. Mr. Searle also led the Helsinki University Symphony Orchestra on a spring concert tour of Sweden, Latvia and Estonia.

In 2000 Mr. Searle made his opera debut with the Royal Stockholm Opera in performances of Kurt Weill's The Tsar has his Photograph Taken and H.K. Gruber's Frankenstein. Other opera performances include the 2003 premiere of Seppo Paakkunainen's opera Kaikkeuden ytimessä (At the Heart of the Universe) with the Oulu Opera and Oulu Symphony Orchestra. Classica magazine wrote of that performance, “This production's greatest gift was its steadfast and authoritative musical execution … David Searle and the Oulu Symphony should be thanked for their fine esprit de corps”. The Helsinki News added, “American conductor and Finnish resident David Searle conducted with a keen attentiveness and stately authority”.

Mr. Searle's affinity for contemporary music resulted in a 2002 collaboration with Canada's Ergo Ensemble, performing works by Finnish composers Asko Hyvärinen, Kimmo Kuitunen, and Johan Tallgren, and Canadian composers Barbara Croall, Chris Paul Harman and Linda Catlin Smith. Performances took place in both Turku, Finland, and in Toronto, where Mr. Searle also served as Visiting Artist and Lecturer at the Royal Conservatory of Music. Previously, he was the Assistant Conductor of Northwestern University’s Contemporary Music Ensemble, a position highlighted by an innovative concert of the music of Frank Zappa. He has also appeared at the Helsinki Musica Nova and Ung Nordisk Musik (Young Nordic Music) festivals.

At the Sibelius Academy, Mr. Searle was a student of Leif Segerstam, Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic. In 2000, another graduate of the Sibelius Academy, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Music Director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, selected Mr. Searle from a field of international applicants as one of eight participants for an intensive master class for promising young conductors in Porvoo, Finland. Mr. Searle also studied with Gunther Schuller, Robert Spano, and Victor Yampolsky.