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Dan Perkins
Dan Perkins is Professor Emeritus of Music at Plymouth State University, where he was professor of music and director of choral activities for 29 years and the first Stevens-Bristow Distinguished Professor. Perkins is active as a guest conductor and clinician throughout the United States and abroad. He is co-founder and music director of the New Hampshire Master Chorale and Chamber Orchestra, and music director of the Manchester Choral Society and Orchestra and the NH Friendship Chorus.
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Past positions include principal guest conductor and director of choral activities for the New Hampshire Music Festival, guest conductor of the Asia Pacific Activities Conference Orchestra in Hanoi, Vietnam, principal guest conductor of the Vietnam National Opera and Ballet in Hanoi, music director of the Hanover Chamber Orchestra and New England Camerata, associate conductor of the Savonlinna Opera Festival Chorus, and associate conductor of the Finnish Chamber Choir. He was a faculty member at the Bassi Brugnatelli International Conducting and Singing Symposium in Robbiate, Italy. He has conducted for Mid-America Productions and the New England Symphonic Ensemble at Carnegie Hall.
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His choirs have performed and studied in Spain, England, Colombia, Cuba, Chile, Poland, Slovak Republic, Hungary, Austria, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, Morocco, Vietnam, South Korea, South Africa, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Canada, Armenia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Iceland, Puerto Rico and throughout the United States.
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Major works conducted in recent seasons include Durufle Requiem, Bloch Sacred Service, Bernstein Mass, Bach Mass in B minor, Sibelius Pohjola's Daughter, Pärt Te Deum, Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony, Haydn's Seasons, Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem, Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem, Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass, Leonard Bernstein's MASS, and Mozart Mass in C minor. With the New Hampshire Master Chorale, Perkins has commissioned and premiered over 30 works, most recently Windshear by Michael Bussewitz-Quarm, Voices of the Silenced by Kim Andre Arneson, and Night Migrations and Worth the Wait by Oliver Caplan.
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Perkins is currently on faculty at St. Paul's School and New Hampton School and is an active freelance collaborative pianist and pianist and music director for the chamber ensemble Trio Veritas.
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Perkins holds the degrees Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music in Choral Music from the University of Southern California, and Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from Brigham Young University. He continued his studies as a Fulbright scholar in Helsinki, Finland.