Guest Artists

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Daniel Ketter, born and raised in Kansas City, was appointed in 2018 as Assistant Professor of Music at Missouri State University, where he teaches courses in cello, chamber music, and music theory. In Springfield, Missouri, Daniel is principal cello of Springfield Symphony Orchestra and specializes in performance of contemporary and classical chamber music, regularly collaborating with Ensemble Alla Balena, Rio Verde String Quartet, Keuka Lake Music Festival, Cellax Duo, and other groups nationally and internationally. 

Daniel Ketter is Co-Director and cellist of American Wild Ensemble (www.musicintheamericanwild.com), which celebrates the people and places that define American communities with new music. In 2018, American Wild Ensemble released a two-hour album of eleven original works on the ArtistShare label, including an hour-long music video album available on YouTube. With support from the National Endowment for the Arts, these works were commissioned and performed for a national tour of 25 performances in seven national parks celebrating the centennial of the National Park Service in 2016. Since 2016, AWE has collaborated with ten different national parks and historic sites and commissioned and premiered over thirty new chamber music works. This includes a 2018 residency at North Cascades National Park Complex celebrating the park’s 50th anniversary, supported by Washington’s National Park Fund;  an educational commissioning and performance tour in 2020 collaborating with composers in Hawaii to promote local conservation efforts supported by a Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant; and a 2020 commissioning and performing tour celebrating pioneering female aviators Bessie Coleman and Amelia Earhart supported by a Mid-America Arts Alliance Artistic Innovations Grant. Further commissions and tours have been supported by grants from The Paul R. Judy Center for Applied Research, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Missouri State University, Missouri Humanities, and New Music USA.

Daniel completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where he served as Alan Harris’s teaching assistant. As a teacher, he created and led a technique class for undergraduates in the studio and continues to present annual summer classes for the Eastman Cello Institute. In Rochester, Daniel also taught cello and chamber music at Hochstein School of Music and Dance and co-coordinated their Chamber Music Connections Program. He founded the Eastman Cello Ensemble, which gave annual performances for “Live at Hochstein” broadcast on the radio by WXXI and for “If Music Be the Food…” benefiting Rochester’s Foodlink. In Springfield, Daniel coaches chamber music for the annual MSU String Fling and has started the MSU Cello Clinic for area students.

In 2020, Daniel finished a PhD in Music Theory at Eastman School of Music. His research interests include essential voices in Schenkerian theory, performance and analysis, and a collaboration with the Natural History of Song for The Music Lab at Harvard University (https://www.naturalhistoryofsong.org). Daniel’s dissertation defines the concept of an essential voice in Schenkerian theory, grounding it in historical music theory and tracing it through J. S. Bach’s works for solo melodic instruments. Daniel frequently gives presentations illustrating links between performance and analysis, including a presentation and performance on Brahms’s E minor Cello Sonata at the annual meeting for The Music Theory Society of New York State. 

Daniel has a MM in cello performance and pedagogy from Peabody Conservatory, studying with Alison Wells, and graduated with high distinction from both Eastman School of Music (BM ’10, cello performance) and from University of Rochester (BA ’10, mathematics). He will be appearing with The Opus 76 Quartet as a guest 'cellist until June 2020.