Daniel McGarvey was born September 1st, 1970, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he spent his entire childhood dabbling in music and secretly dreaming of being a fighter pilot. In the meantime, Pittsburgh was rife with opportunities to hone his novice musical skills, recording, playing and writing music that no one wanted to hear then or wants to now. Dreams of aerial dogfights soon gave way to a lust for stage lights as Dan made his way into the Pittsburgh metal and punk scenes. But adulthood called, and for lack of a starting point, Dan ambled into an Air Force recruiting office and began a lofty career directing traffic and guarding the jets he once dreamed of flying. The benefit of this rather unglamorous work is that Dan got a lot of free time to indulge himself in his musical endeavors, playing in bands, recording and honing his musical and compositional skills. And as it turns out, the military experience would pay off down the road.
In 1993 Dan started his undergrad at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, initially starting out in the school's guitar program, under the instruction of Irving Kaufman, Pittsburgh Symphony's principal cellist. Because the guitar program at IUP could accommodate less than ten students at the time, and Dan was one of fifteen guitar students who applied, he had to choose between being put on a waiting list or switching majors. With only his heavy metal vocal chops to guide him, Dan auditioned for and was inexplicably accepted into the school's voice program and spent the next several years correcting a litany of poor singing habits learned in the clubs of Pittsburgh.
Dan's interest in composition had earned him a positive (if somewhat dubious) reputation among his peers at IUP, and also steered him towards studying composition seriously. He had the privilege of meeting and working with Daniel Perlongo, Rome Prize-winning composer and instructor ar IUP, and Dan soon found himself regularly attending the Wednesday night composition seminars. His passion for composing music was now in full bloom. At the same time, Dan found himself re-entering the military after a rather embarrassing brush with the law that no one's interested in hearing about. Dan joined the Pennsylvania Army National Guard and soon found a job playing trombone with the 28th Infantry Division Band.
In 1998 Dan graduated IUP with honors with a B.S. in Music Education, but wasn't ready to settle into a cozy teaching job just yet. Dan spent a year or so in North Carolina giving private studio lessons out of a local music store and composing on the side, but he felt as though there was more to do, and so at the behest of his best friend and colleague Mike Barnett, applied for and was accepted into the graduate composition program at the University of Colorado in Boulder. It took exactly three seconds for Dan to fall completely and hopelessly in love with Boulder and its surrounding beauty, and Dan purposely managed to milk a full four years out of his Masters program. While at CU, Dan became a founding member of the Pendulum concert series, and also held a small part-time job doing choir at Bridge School, a small private school in town, discovering the joys of making music with young students.
Dan went on for a while working as a school choir director, and ultimately felt that directing choirs was a good direction for his career (no small thanks to the incredibly talented choir kids he had the pleasure of leading). He took a hiatus from the world of music education and re-entered the CU College of Music to pursue graduate studies in Choral Conducting. He also founded the Vox Anima Choir, a Boulder-based community chorus that specializes in the study and performance of 20th and 21st Century choral repertoire. Add to that a rigorous schedule of private voice students, church choirs and playing with the 101st Army Band, and Dan was one happy music-maker. As fate would have it, however, Pennsylvania beckoned once more, and in 2010 Dan and his family once again found themselves on the East Coast where Dan re-ignited his teaching career as a choir director in a middle school in his old hometown. Funny how life has a way of bringing you full circle sometimes.
This is supposed to be the part of the bio where you get a list of non work-related hobbies that Dan loves, but that would be redundant, as Dan has managed to do the things he loves in his job. Composing, making music with students, directing choirs, and touring the country as an Army National Guard Bandsman all provide a lifetime of musical and personal satisfaction for Dan, who is presently looking for a way to also get paid for watching Star Trek.