David KozisekFaculty

A versatile and passionate educator, Dr. David Kozisek understands the modern singer’s need to have healthy classical training that can be applied to a variety of musical styles and situations. He believes that anyone can sing and inspires confidence and artistry in his students of all ages by being positive and promoting a balanced technical approach tailored to the learning style of each student.

Dr. Kozisek appeared frequently at the Kennedy Center with the Washington National Opera, Washington Chorus, Washington Concert Opera, Cathedral Choral Society, and the National Symphony Orchestra, among others. David has also performed with the Shakespeare Theatre and in various theatre programs at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. David has been a participant of the John Duffy Composer’s Institute, Brevard Music Center, Crittenden Opera Workshop, Bay View Music Conservatory, and BASOTI in San Francisco.  In Minneapolis, David has soloed with the South Metro Chorale, Minnesota Oratorio Society, MacPhail Center for Music’s Spotlight Series, and was featured in the ensemble of Carousel with the Minnesota Orchestra.  Some of David’s more recent solo recitals have featured Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, Schumann’s Dichterliebe, Benjamin Britten’s Still Falls the Rain, John Taveners’s Songs of the Sky, Ralph Vaughn William’s Ten Blake Songs, along with themed recitals based on Shakespearian texts and the music of Broadway.  David’s most recent project: Songs Student’s Taught Me, highlights musical theatre repertoire that David has learned by teaching it to his students. 

David’s younger students regularly perform leading roles in high school musicals and participate in All-State Choir, MacPhail’s Prelude Program, and Honors Recitals.  They have won the Interlochen Arts Camp’s Joseph Maddy Award for Musical Theatre, Hennepin Theatre Trust Spotlight’s Triple Threat, and Collegiate Concerto and Aria Competitions.  His students have been accepted to study at Julliard, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota’s Guthrie Theatre BFA, Carnegie Mellon, Pace, Rutgers, Vasser, DePauw University, Boston University, and the North Carolina School for the Arts. 

David is an active conductor who works frequently with visiting choirs (in person and on-line) at MacPhail and serves as the Assistant Director of the Giving Voice Chorus, a choir for people living with Alzheimer’s Disease and their caregivers.   Their Virtual Performance of “I Will Sing” which he envisioned, coordinated, and helped to produce in 2020, was featured on 360 nations’ Worldwide New Year’s Day Celebration, 2021. David has conducted a variety of larger works with orchestra including Henry Purcell’s opera, Dido and Aeneas, Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio, Sarah Kirkland Snider’s Unremembered, and most recently, a special outdoor performance of Michael John Trotta’s Requiem, Light Shines in the Darkness, to honor those who lost their lives to Covid-19.      

Dr. Kozisek’s doctoral research, Using Team-Based Learning to Increase Feedback in the Applied Voice Studio, greatly influences his teaching and studio activities.  It also was featured in a poster session at the 2017 Minnesota Music Educators Mid-Winter Clinic.  In the era of Covid, David presented a session at the Minnesota Music Educator Association’s Back to School Conference entitled “To teach synchronously or asynchronously (or both), that is the question…”  The session highlighted the benefits and challenges of working with individual singers and ensembles and individual voice students online.   While at the University of Minnesota, David received a grant to develop and implement SINGOUT!, an interactive vocal music program for 4th and 5th graders that engages their creativity to better produce an expressive, flexible, and healthy tone.

Dr. Kozisek, is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and DePauw University.  He completed his master’s degree in Vocal Performance on fellowship at the University of Michigan and his Doctorate in Voice with a cognate in conducting at the University of Minnesota.  He is the Director of Music & Worship at Hamline United Methodist Church, Artistic Director of the Music and Arts Series there, and is on faculty at Gustavus Adolphus College and the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. 

“David is both a phenomenal vocalist AND a phenomenal teacher.”

“David challenges me with actionable goals. His style is very personable, and he always delivers his feedback with candor, intelligence and goodwill.”

“Shows a sincere interest in his students.”

“Challenges me as a musician, but it’s never anything I can’t handle.”

“Cares about you as a person first, and then as a voice student.”

“He does a phenomenal job.” 

Courses Taught