“Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
— George Bernard Shaw
DAVID H. EDELFELT has built a multi-faceted musical career since moving to Chicago from his native upstate NY. In 1985, after graduating from the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, New York, where he received a BM in music education, he came to Northwestern University where he earned an MM degree in vocal performance in 1986.
His musical background includes twelve years of piano study, as well as study in organ, clarinet, trumpet, cello, guitar and percussion. He began studying voice at the age of 15 and quickly established himself as a successful and respected young singer and actor in the genres of musical (and non-musical) theater, opera and concert.
On the musical theater stage his roles have ranged from the leading men of Rodgers & Hammerstein to those of Kander & Ebb. As an operatic bass-baritone, Mr. Edelfelt has sung roles ranging from Mozart to Menotti. In oratorio work he has performed roles of Handel, Bach and Schubert, and such Requiems as those of Faure, Mozart and Verdi. In the genre of choral music, he has sung under Robert Shaw, Erich Leinsdorf, Franz Allers, Fritz Mahler, Abraham Kaplan, Brock McElheran, Eve Queler, and Julius Rudel.
He has served multiple churches of various denominations across the country as organist, vocalist, choral director and minister of music. Mr. Edelfelt is currently the director of the Chancel Choir and Motet Choir at First Presbyterian Church, Libertyville – a position he has held since 1998 – where his duties include conducting choir and orchestra in major choral works. In 2000, Mr. Edelfelt had the opportunity to travel abroad as assistant conductor to a touring choir that presented concerts in 5 European countries. In June of 2009, he lead the North Shore Choral Society and the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in their spring concert featuring internationally renowned soloists Michelle Areyzaga and Robert Orth.
At his private studio in Chicago, Mr. Edelfelt is a popular and in-demand voice teacher, vocal coach, accompanist and arranger to some of Chicago’s most talented and successful singers, including several other voice teachers. His students -- whose testimonials speak of their positive experience with David -- represent a variety of musical genres, backgrounds and levels of expertise.
He is known for his ability to help singers of all kinds improve their craft through the learning and application of a universal technique that enables them to find their unique and authentic sound. He earns the trust of his students by offering a safe place for the sometimes emotional work of letting go of both physical and mental blocks that can stand in the way of good singing. Because of his unique approach to the study of singing, he has been called “part voice teacher, part life coach”, as he nurtures and guides singers toward overcoming and healing the barriers that stand in their way of achieving their personal and professional goals.
As a vocal coach and interpretive guide, David is able to help singers access the dramatic core of the music and find the heart of a lyric, thereby ensuring effective and moving performances, whether in classical music, cabaret or musical theater. He periodically leads master classes in which he teaches vocal technique and interpretive aspects of singing. As a conductor and choral clinician, Mr. Edelfelt offers these same skill sets to choral groups across the country.
In addition to vocal technique and vocal coaching, David also offers such diverse yet related services as vocal therapy and recovery from vocal health issues, range extension, repertoire selection and expansion, audition preparation, foreign language pronunciation, dialect coaching, monologue coaching, baroque and bel canto ornamentation, opera role preparation, scat singing, sight-singing and theory knowledge, guidance with music arranging and composition consulting. He also guides singers in writing and putting together complete cabaret shows.
After many years of devoting most of his professional energies to his voice students in Chicago and his conducting, in 2007 Mr. Edelfelt happily returned once again to performing (see My Performances). An active member of the Chicago Cabaret Professionals (CCP), David can be found singing around Chicagoland at Davenport’s Cabaret, the iconic Park West, Chicago’s historic Auditorium Theater, Drury Lane Water Tower Place, the Skokie Theater or Preston Bradley Hall in the Cultural Center. He has also sung for the cabaret series at Moraine Valley College, for several consecutive years at the Elkhart Jazz Festival, at the Cole Porter Foundation, and in 2019 made his Paris debut at Lapin Agile; Paris’ oldest cabaret.
Following his “come-back” performance on the Drury Lane Water Tower stage in 2007, the Chicago Tribune declared “… he probably sounds great singing the weather forecast; he’s just blessed with a luxuriant instrument.” Since then, he has received numerous accolades and been hailed as “a consummate song interpreter” and “one of Chicago’s best.” His one-man shows have been called “superlative from start to finish, hilarious, healing, deliciously engaging and simply brilliant” and regularly play to standing ovations of sold-out audiences. Both of his CDs (“Love is Born at Christmas” and “better”) have been critically acclaimed and are available for purchase by contacting him directly.