TEACHER

Teaching
Daniel is an award-winning educator committed to developing his teaching practice in classrooms, workshops, supervision, and through research for 20+ years. As a faculty member, guest artist, and artist-in-residence, he has taught and led masterclasses at universities, conservatories, festivals, and arts organizations across North America and Europe—designing creative, engaging learning for both the general public and advanced students.

Areas of focus

• • • • • • • Making meaning & connections through aesthetics: humanness, curiosity, connection & interaction, voice, data translation/representation, multisensory stories & collaboration
            • Spontaneity & improvisation: perception-intuition-action, games
            • Technology: multimodal experience & analysis, through digital and analog tools, sound in and for scientific research
            • Idiomatic building blocks & composition: rhythm, timbre, melody, harmony, structure-time; Afrologic & Eurologic traditions & aesthetics, vocabulary & ear-training

Daniel leading public music-science workshop events as chair with IMéRA Institute for Advanced Studies and Institut Cancer et Immunologie, Aix-Marseille Université 

Class Guests (select)
Ben Proudfoot (two-time Academy Award–winning director) • Michela Marino Lerman (tap dancer/choreographer) • Vijay Iyer (GRAMMY-nominated pianist/composer) • Nicholas Jacobson-Larson (composer) • TONE (Memphis women-founded Black arts & culture nonprofit) • Diane Borsato (performance artist)

Appointments & teaching
Former Chair of Research-Creation at IMéRA Inst. of Advanced Study & Inst. of Cancer and Immunology at Aix-Marseille University (multimodal scientific data translation, healthcare stories), and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Grinnell College (music technology, sonic activism, musicology, improvisation, ensemble), Daniel has taught music undergraduates and graduates at the University of Toronto (topics in improvisation, theory, composition, ensemble, saxophone, and guest lectures in music education, voice, jazz), where he received and was nominated for multiple teaching awards. He has also served on the faculties of Memorial University of Newfoundland (topics in classical saxophone, improvisation, musicology-folklore), Acadia University (saxophone, improvisation), Jerry Granelli’s Creative Music Workshop (interdisciplinary ensembles, spontaneous composition).

Community-engaged projects (select)

• • • • Amplifying lived experiences with dignity and translating scientific research through interactive, participatory, and immersive events, across (visual, sonic, kinesthetic-somesthetic) modalities (Institut Cancer et Immunologie, IMéRA Institute for Advanced Study, Aix-Marseille Université) 2024-2025
      • Celebrating and exploring queer dialogues across (visual, sonic, spatial-kinesthetic) modalities (Grinnell College Museum of Art, Iowa) 2021
      • Giving voice to homeless youths’ health concerns (Dalhousie University School of Social Work, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) 2008
      • Celebrating Canada’s oldest Black communities, in Preston (Arts Smarts, Black Cultural Centre of Nova Scotia) 2006
      • Connecting elders and youth in a Nova Scotian fishing village: Sambro (Arts Smarts, Four C’s Foundation) 2005
      • Interactive instrument-building installations (Art Gallery of Nova Scotia) 2004-2007
      • Interactive children’s puppet shows (Halifax Region Public Libraries) 2004-2007
      • Exploring Francophone music traditions at a Francophone school (Alliance Française, Canadian Parents for French) 2004
      • Violence and suicide prevention for at-risk communities (The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Youth Against Violence International Workshop) 1997

Daniel leading an undergraduate workshop at U of Toronto, Jazz Department.

Former Students’ Achievements
Daniel’s former students perform international stages, arenas, and on GRAMMY-nominated albums; receive commissions and premieres from GRAMMY-winning soloists and major orchestras; curate and program the largest music festivals; earn graduate degrees at leading international institutions (Manhattan SM, U Toronto, Berlin Udk); hold tenure-track, directorship, and lectureship appointments at major Canadian universities and conservatories; earn national awards (JUNOs, Doras), and achieve independent scale—multi-million streams and six-figure audiences—along with broadcast features and TV syncs.

Collaborative teaching with…
Jerry Granelli (Hochshule für Musik Berlin, Creative Music Workshop), Christos Hatzis (U of Toronto), David Tronzo (Berklee), Julian Priester (Cornish), Jay Clayton (Peabody), Susanne Chui (Mocean Dance), Shauntay Grant (Dalhousie), Dave Douglas (Banff), Mike Murley (U of Toronto), Nasim Niknafs (U of Toronto), J Granelli (SIM), Jim Lewis (U of Toronto), Andrew Staniland (MUN), Florian Hoefner (MUN), Don Palmer (Dalhousie), Pamela Beach (Queen’s U), Diane Borsato (U of Guelph), Chase Sanborn (U of Toronto), Sageev Oore (Google Brain, Vector, Dalhousie), Christine Duncan (U of Toronto), Nick Fraser (U of Toronto), Paul Fowler (Naropa), Michael Blake (New School), Carol Vernallis (Stanford)…

Click, for:
STUDENTS
TEACHING TESTIMONIALS
RESEARCH