Dr. David Friddle
Director of Choral Activities and Part-time Instructor of Introduction to Music
Humanities and Performing Arts Center, 103
(864) 503-5253
dfriddle@uscupstate.edu
In 2012, David Friddle was appointed as Director of Choral Activities at USC Upstate where he conducts two choirs -- University Singers and Chamber Choir -- and teaches Introduction to Music courses.
A conductor, organist, composer, author, editor and graphic/web designer, Friddle has a restless curiosity and an insatiable desire to understand. His most recent achievement is the appearance of Franz Liszt’s oratorio Christus by the German music publisher Bärenreiter. Praised by the American Choral Review as a “goldmine of information,” and by the British journal Choir & Organ as an “Insightful restoration… and an impressive edition,” his Urtext score includes a 100-plus page discussion of 19th-century performance practices. Based on this success, he is in negotiations with Oxford University Press to write a comprehensive book on choral performance practices.
Friddle rediscovered and edited five lost choral pieces, Fünf Gedichte von Richard Pohl, Op. 15, by the 19th-century conductor Hans von Bülow. Published by E.C. Schirmer, Friddle conducted the American premiere and recorded the set for Arsis Records.He has had articles published in journals and magazines such as Choral Journal, Newsletter of the American Liszt Society, American Choral Review and The American Organist. Friddle has presented at the following venues: the 2006 American Choral Director Association National Convention, Los Angeles; 2006 Kulturfest Weimar; 2005 American Liszt Society Festival; University of Nebraska at Lincoln; and, Helicon Foundation, New York.
Furthermore, Friddle founded two community-based choirs—Upstate Singers Allied in Greenville, SC (1996) and Cantaría in Asheville, NC (1997).
He has studied with such choral figures as Jo-Michael Scheibe (President, ACDA 2011), Stephen Cleobury (King’s College, Cambridge), Richard Westenberg (Juilliard School), and has attended workshops with Dennis Keene. David studied orchestral conducting with Thomas Sleeper at the University of Miami.
Dr. Friddle's research has taken him to Leipzig, Berlin, Budapest, London and Weimar, and he has traveled extensively in France, Italy, Australia and New Zealand—including a six-month stay in Florence. He has conducted choirs and given workshops in 17 of the 50 states and has gained a reputation for his expertise in Romantic music.
Awards received by Dr. Friddle include:
• Presser Music Award
• Fulbright Award (finalist)
• Election to Pi Kappa Lambda, University of Miami
• UM Provost Travel Grant
• University of Miami Graduate Award for Excellence
• Adobe Graduate Innovation Award
• First Prize, Music Division, UM Citizen’s Board Research and Creativity Forum
• Joseph and Grace W. Valentine Scholarship, The Juilliard School
• Duke Scholarship, The Juilliard School
• Election to Mortar Board and Phi Kappa Alpha, Baylor University
Dr. Friddle's compositions are published by MorningStar Music and Yelton-Rhodes Publishing. In addition, he has written liner/program notes for such organizations as:
• Master Chorale of South Florida
• Festival Miami
• Central City Chorus
• Arsis Records
As an organist, Dr. Friddle has performed in:
• Alice Tully Hall, New York
• Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York
• St. Paul’s Cathedral, London
• Thomaskirche, Leipzig
• Bristol Cathedral
• Winchester Cathedral
• Yorkminster Cathedral
David is a DMA2: The Juilliard School and University of Miami. He has also studied at the Royal School of Church Music in London and at the Istituto Italiano in Florence. His teachers include:
• David Diamond
• Albert Fuller
• Jo-Michael Scheibe
• Frank Cooper
• Robert Bailey
• Gerre Hancock
• Tim Page, former music critic for the Washington Post