FOUNDER OF THE NATIONAL CHORALE, MARTIN JOSMAN

The founder of the National Chorale, Martin Josman, was one of the nation’s leading vocal conductors. He conducted at the now David Geffen Hall when the Hall opened as Philharmonic Hall, then Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, as well as Carnegie Hall, throughout the New York area and across the United States: at Boston’s Symphony Hall, the Philadelphia Academy of Music, the Seattle Opera House, Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis, the Saratoga Festival Amphitheatre, Powell Hall in St. Louis, Symphony Halls in Tulsa and Phoenix, the Eastman Theatre in Rochester and Chautauqua Amphitheatre. He has conducted concerts and Messiah Sing-Ins at Lincoln Center each season since 1965.

ABC Television chose him as Music Director for the network’s 90-minute musical tribute to President John F. Kennedy. He was the music director and conductor of the 90-minute PBS-Chanel 13 special Bach and His Sons: The Overwhelming Legacy, shown more than 350 times by 125 public television stations across the country.

A native New Yorker, Mr. Josman regularly conducted an extensive repertory of choral-orchestral masterworks, as well as opera, operetta, and the Chorale’s New York Festival of American Music Theatre at Avery Fisher and Carnegie Hall.

An advocate for new American music, Mr. Josman regularly conducted works, many commissioned by the Chorale, as well as United States premiers of rediscovered Baroque, Classical, and Romantic Era masterpieces.

He also served as a member of the Choral Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts.

He is missed by many.