David Carlson joins Cantus Youth Choirs today for the first time. He is a regular contributor to musical organizations in the Treasure Valley and continues a quarter-century role as soloist at the Cathedral of the Rockies, as well as a participant in its adult choir, its men’s quartet, and other small groups. He has sung as tenor soloist with Northwest Nazarene University, The Boise Philharmonic, The Boise Master Chorale, Opera Idaho, and The Boise Baroque Orchestra among others.
Mr. Carlson is most noted as soloist for performances of oratorio and sacred works such as Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Handel’s Messiah and Judas Maccabaeus, and Bach’s St. John’s Passion and St. Matthew Passion.
At Iowa State University, where he studied music and computer science, he sang with the Opera Theatre, university choruses, and as a member of its elite Cardinal Keynotes, a mixed double octet. Before moving west, he was a member of the renowned Chicago Symphony Chorus.
David Young first discovered the power and beauty of the pipe organ as a teenager. He pursued private organ study during high school in Boise with Patricia Nelson and later continued his studies at the university level.
As a student at Brigham Young University, Mr. Young studied with Dr. Douglas Bush, and later graduated from BYU with a Bachelor’s degree in Organ Performance and Pedagogy in 1997. While an undergraduate student, Mr. Young served as Organ Scholar at the Cathedral of the Madeleine (Roman Catholic) in Salt Lake City, accompanying the choirs and congregation in masses, special feast days, and in concert.
During his university studies, Mr. Young also traveled to Europe where he studied and played over 60 historic pipe organs, in Germany, Holland, England, France and Italy. He later received a university stipend to return to Germany and Holland to study the pipe organs of the Baroque organ builder, Arp Schnitger.
After completing his undergraduate studies, Mr. Young enrolled in law school at the University of Idaho, where he graduated with a law degree in 2001. Simultaneously both an attorney and an organist, Mr. Young has nearly always held an appointment as an organist while also practicing law.
Currently, Mr. Young serves as Principal Organist at Boise First United Methodist Church (the “Cathedral of the Rockies”), a post he has held since 2010. As organist, Mr. Young accompanies the traditional worship services on the Cathedral’s 77-rank Aeolian-Skinner pipe organ–Idaho’s largest–and including accompaniment for the resident choirs.
He is employed as a Deputy Attorney General with the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, and also stays active in the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists. He and his wife, Adria Belnap, live in Boise with their three children.