Music Director and Principal Conductor, Des Moines Metro Opera
Director of Orchestral Studies, University of Maryland

Conductor David Neely has been described by Opera News as "a ninja warrior with a baton." He maintains an active career in symphonic, opera, ballet, and educational settings. 

As Music Director and Principal Conductor of Des Moines Metro Opera since 2012, Neely has elevated the company’s musical profile and developed one of the nation’s finest opera orchestras. He has led over 35 critically-acclaimed productions in a broad range of new and traditional repertoire, including the world premieres of Kristin Kuster and Mark Campbell’s A Thousand Acres and Damien Geter and Lila Palmer’s American Apollo. With Des Moines, he has also conducted Salome, Elektra, The Flying Dutchman, Wozzeck, Pikovaya Dama, Yevgeny Onegin, Rusalka, Jenůfa, The Cunning Little Vixen, Falstaff, Peter Grimes, Dead Man Walking, Flight, Macbeth, Don Giovanni, Candide, La Fanciulla Del West, Turandot, Bluebeard’s Castle, The Love for Three Oranges, and Emmy award-winning productions of Manon and Billy Budd for Iowa Public Television. He has spearheaded productions with the Atlanta Opera, Sarasota Opera, Intermountain Opera, and numerous European opera houses, including Bonn and Dortmund. His performances have been praised in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Opera News, Opera Today, Opernwelt, the Chicago Tribune, and The Wall Street Journal.​

Neely has conducted the Bochumer Philharmoniker, Bregenz Symphony Orchestra, Dortmund Philharmonic, Eutin Festival Orchestra, Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera Orchestra, the Apollo Orchestra, as well as the orchestras of the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, University of Texas, University of Kansas, Chicago College for the Performing Arts at Roosevelt University, and the University of Maryland School of Music. He has led ballets with the Dortmund Opera, Coburg Opera, and the Indiana University Ballet Theater.

Neely is an experienced educator in opera and symphonic repertoire, as well as a sought-after conducting teacher and respected vocal coach. Currently Director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Maryland, he is a frequent guest conductor and guest conducting teacher at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he previously served on faculty. He has been a guest teacher and guest conductor with the Washington National Opera’s Cafritz Young Artists, leading WNO’s American Opera Initiative in 2021 and a gala concert in 2026. He has appeared as a conductor with the American Lyric Theater in New York and with the National Orchestral Institute + Festival.

Concerto soloists with whom he has collaborated include Benjamin Beilman, Nicholas Daniel, Roberto Díaz, Marc-André Hamelin, Rainer Honeck, Bella Hristova, Eric Kutz, Ben Lulich, Delfeayo Marsalis, Ricardo Morales, and Joshua Roman. He has appeared as a collaborative pianist with numerous vocalists, including a recent recital with Joyce Castle and Schubert’s "Winterreise" with David Adam Moore.