DAN GARMON

Dan Garmon is a NYC-based multi-instrumentalist, music director, arranger, orchestrator, and educator. He completed a Bachelor of Music at McGill University's Schulich School of Music, and was the first to ever double major on two instruments in two different degree programs: classical piano performance & jazz drum set performance (graduating with distinction in piano). During his studies he had the honor of serving as the drummer for the internationally renowned McGill Jazz One, the school's premiere large jazz ensemble.

 

Dan has since performed around the continent with a host of brilliant performers including Tituss Burgess, John Mulaney, Jimmy Fallon, and more. He has acted as music supervisor & orchestrator/arranger for the yearly national tour of A Charlie Brown Christmas - Live on Stage!  as well as music director for the national tour of Cruel Intentions, the 90's Musical, and he also performs with & MDs/arranges for a diverse group of soloists including Nikki Renee Daniels (Book of Mormon, Porgy & Bess), Sydney James Harcourt [Hamilton, Lion King], Bonnie Milligan (Head Over Heels), Heath Saunders (Great Comet, JCS Live), Natalie Walker (Alice by Heart, Twitter) and more. Dan's greatest passion lies in developing groundbreaking, poignant, provocative new works with a host of leading voices in the next generation of musical theatre writers, including Brian Lowdermilk & Kait Kerrigan, Oliver Houser, Nikko Benson, Daniel Emond, Angela Sclafani and many more.

In addition to working in musical theatre, Dan performs in an unusually diverse variety of musical contexts; he has performed as a solo classical pianist / chamber musician, in jazz combos and big bands, modern/neo-soul groups, pop punk & emo/screamo/mathcore bands, Indian classical music / tabla ensembles, John Zorn Cobra and other improvised music groups, extended-technique contemporary classical, and anything and everything in between. He is currently the drummer for the Brooklyn-based pop-punk band Original Sharks as well as MD for Shayna Blass & Angela Sclafani, and drummer for Kate Ferber.

Dan also has many years of experience teaching dozens of students of all ages and experiences in any style of music. He is concerned with his students understanding and enjoying the pursuit of music and music-making, and thus focuses on asking why something feels the way it does and what various composers are trying to achieve through their music. He thus tries to challenge his students to play with specificity and intention, make connections from genre to genre, understand pieces' contextualization in [music] history, and be able to manipulate the music at hand (via transposition, varying rhythm/style/intention, etc).

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For a more extensive description of his experience, please refer to his resume.