David Griggs-Janower, conductor, is Director of Choral Music and Professor at the University at Albany, State University of New York, where he has taught since 1981.
Griggs-Janower was also the Music Director of the Berkshire Bach Society in Great Barrington, Massachusetts from 1992-1994, the first conductor and a frequent guest conductor of the St. Cecilia Orchestra, the guest conductor of Albany's Mendelssohn Club in the spring of 1985, the Choir Director at First Presbyterian Church of Albany from 1981-1996, Guest Conductor of the Guilderland High School District Choral Festival in 2000, and Guest Conductor at First Reformed Church of Schenectady for a brief time in 2000-2001. He has conducted several New York State Area All-State Choral Festivals.
Griggs-Janower did undergraduate and masters work in music theory and music history at Cornell University. He holds the Master of Music and Doctor of Music degrees in conducting from the Indiana University School of Music, where he studied with Dr. Julius Herford, Fiora Contino, and Margaret Hillis. He has been on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Visiting Artist/Guest Conductor at Williams College and Skidmore College (twice). Griggs-Janower served on the staff of the Aspen Music Festival Choral Institute for ten seasons and on the staff of the Oregon Bach Festival under Helmuth Rilling for seven summers.
In August 2003, Griggs-Janower was named Outstanding Conductor of the Year by the New York State American Choral Directors Association. He also received two awards in the spring of 2002. The University at Albany established a new faculty award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activity, and he was the first recipient. Several weeks later he was given the award of the same title from the State University of New York, chosen from among the faculty of all 64 campuses. Griggs-Janower was honored in 1999 with the Albany-Schenectady League of Arts Award for his outstanding contribution to the Capital Region community through the creation, presentation, and support of the arts.
Active in the professional organizations in his field, Griggs-Janower served for two years as the American Choral Directors Association's Eastern Division Chair of the Repertory and Standards Committee for College and University Choirs, and he continues to serve on the ACDA's National Research and Publications Committee and the Research Monographs Subcommittee. He is currently the Chair of the Committee on Repertory and Standards for Community Choruses for NYS ACDA. He is a frequent contributor to The Choral Journal, writing on a diverse group of composers, including Bach, Bruckner, Mendelssohn, and American composers William Grant Still and George F. Bristow. Griggs-Janower has appeared as conductor or clinician at seven ACDA conventions and two NYSSMA (New York State School Music Association) summer conferences. With Albany Pro Musica and with the University Chamber Singers, Griggs-Janower has produced nine CDs and has led seven concert tours to Europe and Central America. He also leads the UAlbany University-Community Chorale.
Working meticulously over several years, David Griggs-Janower undertook the massive task of editing the manuscript of Bristow's Oratorio of Daniel from microfilm, which was tucked away in the New York Public Library, making a modern performing edition. Part I of The Oratorio of Daniel was performed in 1995 at the University at Albany as part of its tricentennial celebrations. Daniel was performed in its entirety for the first time since 1878 by Albany Pro Musica under the direction of Griggs-Janower in 1997. His critical and performing edition of Bristow's 1866 oratorio was published in 1999 by A-R Editions in its prestigious Recent Researches in American Music series. The work received two performances in 2004-2005, one in Germany, and Albany Pro Musica’s CD of the work was aired on Raleigh, North Carolina public radio in February, 2004.