Dan has been a drummer for over 20 years performing all over the world in every setting imaginable. He began his journey into the music of the Caribbean and Africa at West Virginia University. While obtaining his Masters in Music Performance, Dan regularly performed under the tutelage of Ghanian master drummer Dr. Paschal Younge and in the steelband of pan master Ellie Manette, who is credited as the father of the modern day steel drum instrument. Dan’s musical passage continued from there to Ghana, West Africa where he studied traditional African drumming and dancing, and to the Caribbean island ofTrinidad, where the amazing history of the Steel drum began. Today Dan is a teacher, arranger, and performer of steel drum music, including writing and performing in Caribbean Traditions and Passport to Rhythm which are Gateway to the Arts educational shows on the history of the steel drum and the intermixing of percussion music from all over the world. He is a rostered Pennsylvania Council on the Arts steel drum residency artist and performs over sixty times a year on the steel drums as a solo artist and with the Caribbean Jazz group Resonance. Dan continues to work in other areas of world percussion as well, with occasional stints in the UMOJA African Dance Company, the Balafon West African Dance Ensemble, and Tuika's Polynesian Magic, a music and dance theater group of the Polynesian islands.
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