David Otis Castonguay is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities at Radford University. In addition to supervising the university's choral ensembles and graduate program in choral conducting, Castonguay teaches choral conducting, choral literature and methods as well as maintaining a large applied voice studio of university and high school students.
University choirs under his direction present a wide variety of programs each year including works with orchestra, the annual Madrigal Dinner as well as a holiday concert in St. Andrew’s Church, Roanoke. The university concert choir regularly performs with professional orchestras including the Roanoke Symphony and Louisiana Philharmonic. The choir has established a special relationship with the Louisiana Philharmonic where the choir periodically engages in a nine-day residency. These collaborations have culminated in performances of the Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Brahms Ein Deutches Requiem, the Dvorak Te Deum and Orff’s Carmina Burana.
A long time advocate of Russian music, Castonguay has established close ties with Russian conductors and choirs. He frequently serves on the jury of international choral competitions in Russia including Christmas in Russia. This festival occurs every three years and features over 75 choirs from Europe and Asia competing over 5 days in historic Yekaterinburg, Russia’s fifth largest city. Castonguay also serves on the jury of the International Martinu Festival of Children’s, Youth and Academic Choirs in Pardubice, Czech Republic at the end of June every two years. At the invitation of the Russian Ministry of Culture and the Russian Federation of Choral Conductors the university concert choir and madrigal singers have presented several concert tours in Russia. Each of the tours occurred in conjunction with a national convention of Russian conductors focusing on American music. The choir has presented concerts and Castonguay has presented lectures in Moscow, Yekaterinburg and Kamensk-Uralsky.
Castonguay is active as a clinician and guest conductor conducting festival choirs in Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Vermont and Virginia and has also presented workshops for state chapters of ACDA, MENC and the AGO. His principal conducting teachers were Harold Decker, Brock McElheran, John Poellein and Paul Vermel. Prior to his appointment at Radford in 1986, Castonguay held faculty positions at Bemidji State University (Minnesota), the University of Connecticut and Spaulding High School in Barre, Vermont.
Castonguay’s articles on choral music and techniques as well as reviews of contemporary compositions and CD recordings are regularly published in state, regional and national journals. He formally served on the Board of Directors for ChoralNet and has been an advocate for establishing ways for choral directors to use the Internet to open lines of communication internationally including the international database of choral music, MUSICA. Castonguay has published numerous editions of Renaissance and Romantic choral works and he is currently preparing for publication by Musica Russica the critical edition full score of Igor Stravinsky's landmark ballet for choir, 4 pianos and percussion, Les Noces.
He also remains active as a soloist in recital and oratorio. A student of James Bailey, Alan Ord, Richard Parke, Blake Stern and William Warfield. Castonguay is an avid supporter of contemporary music presenting recitals of songs by Rorem, Ives, Argento as well as the world premier of songs by noted serial composer Charles Whittenberg. He was also the baritone soloist for the world premier of Ned Rorem's cantata Homer.
