David Bloom is a conductor equally at home in opera, new music, and orchestral repertoire, noted alike for his “rockstar energy” (Urban Milwaukee) and “graceful sensitivity” (I Care If You Listen). He is founding Co-Artistic Director of Contemporaneous, a 23-member New York-based ensemble which he has led in performances lauded as “ferocious and focused” (The New York Times). Also Co-Artistic Director of Present Music, he brings “breathtaking and inspired programming” (Shepherd Express) to Milwaukee’s long-running new music ensemble. Bloom dedicates his work to collaborating with artists and communities to inspire creativity, empathy, and inclusiveness. In such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, MoMA, and Park Avenue Armory, Bloom has worked with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Jacaranda, The Crossing, NOW Ensemble, Kronos Quartet, and soloists Dashon Burton, David Byrne, Helga Davis, Isabel Leonard, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Courtney Love, Hila Plitmann, Dawn Upshaw, and many more. He has conducted over 350 world premieres and collaborated with collaborated with such composers as Donnacha Dennehy, Du Yun, inti figgis-vizueta, Michael Gordon, Judd Greenstein, Nathalie Joachim, David Lang, Tania León, Emma O’Halloran, and Julia Wolfe. As a cover conductor for the New York Philharmonic, he has worked with such conductors as Susanna Mälkki, Santu-Matias Rouvali, and Dalia Stasevska and soloists Brandford Marsalis, Anthony McGill, and Golda Schultz. Upcoming highlights include Ensemble Connect at Carnegie Hall. Especially active as an opera conductor, among the productions Bloom has led are Philip Glass’s Les enfants terribles for Opera Omaha, Michael Gordon’s Acquanetta, Jeremy Schonfeld’s Iron & Coal, and Todd Almond’s Kansas City Choir Boy for Beth Morrison Projects, Kamala Shankaram’s Miranda in virtual reality for Tri-Cities Opera and Opera Omaha, Julia Wolfe’s Steel Hammer for Cal Performances, Matt Marks’ Mata Hari for PROTOTYPE Festival, and numerous productions for Experiments in Opera, the American Opera Project, Opera on Tap, and more. He has premiered over 30 operas, bringing a spirit of generosity, collaboration, and committed support alike to casts, creatives, orchestras, and audiences. Upcoming highlights include Don Giovanni with Teatro Grattacielo and premieres of Judd Greenstein’s A Marvelous Order and Stranger Love, Dylan Mattingly’s six-hour opera with Contemporaneous at Disney Concert Hall. Along with composer Dylan Mattingly, Bloom co-founded Contemporaneous in 2010 and now leads the ensemble in its second decade, championing the most exciting music of our time. He has guided development for many ambitious works, connecting composers’ dream projects with new audiences. Following a 2016 debut with Present Music, one of the nation’s original new music ensembles, he was appointed Co-Artistic Director in 2019, along with violinist Eric Segnitz. His work enriches Milwaukee’s cultural landscape with cross-genre and immersive programs, featuring local, national, international artists and composers. He has recorded for Sony Masterworks, PBS, Cantaloupe, New Amsterdam, Innova, New Focus, Starkland, Kairos, and Navona and is co-host of Imagination Radio, a Contemporaneous podcast on the significance of music in our lives. Also known as a “vividly creative arranger” (Shepherd Express), Bloom has created a significant library of arrangements for a variety of forces, including music by Julius Eastman, Alhaji Bai Konte, Jeremy Schonfeld, Henry Threadgill, and songs by Gladys Knight and En Vogue for Up Until Now Collective’s performances in American Sign Language. Bloom serves on the faculty at New York University, where he teaches conducting and leads ensembles in standard orchestral literature, new music, and staged work. He has also served as an artistic advisor for activist orchestra The Dream Unfinished since the organization’s founding in 2015. He taught at Kaufman Music Center for eight years, serving as conductor of new music youth orchestra Face the Music and launching the orchestra program at the Center’s public high school, Special Music School. He has been a clinician for Carnegie Hall’s Music Educators Workshop and led residencies at such institutions as Princeton University, Mannes School of Music, City University of New York, Williams College, and his alma mater, Bard College.