Meet New Arts Department Head Mr. Mosher
New Fine & Performing Arts department head Mr. Mosher before directing the choir at our recent pep rally.
November 28, 2021
Mr. David Mosher has just finished his first quarter at RMHS as the Fine and Performing Arts Department head and as the Fine Arts Director for Reading Public Schools
Mr. Mosher was born in El Paso, Texas, and says that his music career started at just four years old, when he started playing piano. He took lessons through middle school. “I started picking up guitar and started getting into other instruments – basically anything that I could get my hands on.” From there, he continued his piano lessons into college, when he majored in Piano Performance at Howard Payne University.
“I’ve been singing since I can remember,” said Mr. Mosher. He started singing in church choirs as a kid, and joined his school choirs as soon as he could. He stayed in his school’s choirs all the way up to high school, and through his transfer from Eastwood High School to Jesus Chapel School.
The choir director at his church in El Paso helped Mr. Mosher transition to start leading and directing choirs. He got most of his initial directing experience from the internship at this church, where he got a lot more behind the scenes experience, like setting up chairs and risers, and putting together a program.
After getting his undergraduate degree, Mr. Mosher went to the University of Houston for his masters degree. “Once I got into grad school I delved more into the composing side of things, so I got into composition, music theory, and a little bit of digital audio workstations.” I’ve been singing since I can remember. — Mr. Mosher
After his masters, he went to UMass Amherst to get his PhD. “I moved here to study ear training with an internationally renowned, well I guess in certain circles internationally renowned, Gary Karpinski, who is the head of the music theory and ear training department at UMass Amherst.” Once he was in Massachusetts, he started looking for jobs around the area, and said, “I really loved the position description [at RMHS]. It was a nice blend of choral involvement, heavy choral involvement… and the district-wide side of things.”
After being chosen as one of the final candidates for the position, he was invited to come to RMHS and direct the Mixed Choir in “What Would You Do With A Drunken Sailor?” He said that he had an amazing experience, and had a great impression of the community at RMHS. “I just got a sense, just from walking around, that the culture from here, just in terms of the arts, people are very motivated to do a good job. They love the community, they love being part of a group that does things well, and that they can be proud of. And I was like–that is a community that I really want to jump into.” I couldn’t be more thrilled to be here. I’ve seen a lot of love and care in the community. I’ve seen a lot of camaraderie… — Mr. Mosher
Last year, Mr. Mosher was hired to take over the position of Music Department Head at RMHS, but also Fine Arts Director for the whole of Reading Public Schools. This means that Mr. Mosher not only teaches music classes at RMHS and leads the choral program here, but he also helps out the elementary and middle school arts and music teachers with anything that they need. Mr. Mulligan, the band director, is impressed by Mr. Mosher’s time in Reading. “He’s been great! He’s very thorough… and the students seem to really like him a lot.”
Now that he’s at RMHS, Mr. Mosher says that his first job is to understand the traditions of the choir and music program as a whole. Senior Tallulah Patalano is the publicist for the choir, and she thinks that Mr. Mosher has done a great job with this idea so far this year. “I think that he’s done a really good job adjusting to the high school, and he’s been respecting a lot of our traditions, which I think is really nice of him. He’s been great!”
Looking into the future, Mr. Mosher is looking to expand the choirs repertoire. “I’m hoping to add from a bunch of different genres and backgrounds, in order that the concerts feel like wow, we really have a sense of concert repertoire, western art music, non-western music from lots of different cultures, and popular repertoire.” Mr. Mosher also hopes to start composing for the choirs in upcoming years, not to try and put his name out there, but to show that the distance between composers and singers isn’t that far.
Mr. Mosher says he loves working here at RMHS. “I couldn’t be more thrilled to be here. I’ve seen a lot of love and care in the community. I’ve seen a lot of camaraderie… I feel a lot of good energy around what’s going on.”
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