David Rayl is the retired director of choral programs and senior associate dean for graduate studies and research at the Michigan State University College of Music. During his 21 years at MSU he mentored over 125 graduate students in choral conducting, many of whom are making significant contributions to choral music in the U.S. Under his baton MSU’s University Chorale appeared at the National and Central Region conferences of the American Choral Directors Association (2007, 2006). He also prepared the Chorale for eight sets of performances with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and regularly served as guest conductor with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, leading large-scale choral-orchestral works. His international engagements include the the China Conservatory in Beijing; the Busan International Choral Festival in South Korea; the VII Festival Internaçional de Música de Camera do Pará, in Belem, Brazil; the II Festival de Corais in Brasilia, Brazil; the Painel Unicanto de Regencia Coral in Londrina, Brazil; and the national conference of the Associação Brasileira de Regentes de Coros in Goiania, Brazil. He has conducted performances in Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts, Paris’s Church of the Madeleine, and the Salzburg Cathedral. In 2022, the MSU University Chorale, under his direction, released two recordings: Virgil Thomson: The Shape-Note Hymn Arrangements and A Yuletide Offering: Carol Arrangements by John Cheetham, both released under the Blue Griffin Recording label. Rayl received MSU’s University Distinguished Faculty Award (2013) and the Simmons-Chivukula Award for Academic Leadership (2019), and the College of Music’s Withrow Award for Excellence in Teaching (2009).
