Daniel Keeling
https://linktr.ee/DanielKeeling
Daniel Keeling — a versatile performing artist, educator, and voice teacher — brings extensive experience interpreting and instructing various genres of vocal repertoire. From music theatre and classical to contemporary commercial music (CCM), he navigates and imparts knowledge across these diverse styles. His performances in various sung theatre and music genres have been featured on esteemed stages, festivals, venues, arenas, and concert halls worldwide, contributing to a growing recognition for his work.
Keeling is currently expanding his work as a stage director. In 2024, he co-directed UC Irvine's Claire Trevor School of the Arts main-stage production of The Prom with outgoing drama department chair Don Hill. Next, he will direct Ancestry, a new play by colleague Zachary Price (Ph.D.), as part of the 2025 inaugural Theater of Community Festival, a new initiative confronting extremism and promoting free speech and community, developed by Price and Bryan Reynolds (Ph.D.) — another fellow colleague.
Daniel has provided background vocals for prominent German pop artist Sarah Connor since 2019, performing in over 100 shows, including three major arena tours and two summer/openair tours, drawing audiences in the tens of thousands across Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. During the 2022 holiday season, Daniel promoted Connor's Christmas album Not So Silent Night through appearances on German TV shows, radio concerts (Germany and Switzerland), TikTok, and a live show production at Berlin's Verti Music Hall. This Berlin show ran for four nights and was recorded and broadcast as a TV Christmas special throughout Europe's German-speaking countries. Daniel is also featured in Connor's music video "Ring Out The Bells." (1.1 million views to date.)
A significant career highlight and privilege for Daniel Keeling was his work with Philip Glass and Leonard Cohen on their joint project, Book of Longing. BOL was a staged song cycle that toured internationally — with Glass as part of the touring ensemble — and was commercially recorded. Keeling has interpreted other works by esteemed modern and contemporary classical figures like David Lang, David Adams, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Harry Partch, George Gershwin, and more, reflecting his deep understanding and championing of modernistic classical repertoire.
In the realm of standard opera, roles include Figaro in Mozart's Il Nozze di Figaro, Germont père in Verdi's Traviata, Oroveso in Bellini's Norma, La Voce in Mozart's Idomeneo, Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen, and Crown in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. In the musical theatre, credits include Joe in On the Town, Benjamin in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Fred in Smokey Joe's Cafe, and a swing/ensemble in the first and second national tours of the 1994 Broadway revival Show Boat — directed by Hal Prince and choreographed by Susan Stroman.
As a featured soloist, Keeling sang with New Zealand's Auckland Chamber Orchestra in Shostakovich's 14th Symphony, joined Germany's Bielefelder Philharmoniker in its presentation of The Motown Soul Symphony and The Michael Jackson Symphony Experience, performed in Robert Beitsch's SoulDance at Berlin's Admiralspalast, held two residencies at ATrane Jazz Club Berlin, and led The Deja Nova Trio as lead singer in Germany, crafting 20 original songs.
Daniel Keeling has performed at venues and festivals across Europe, North America, and Australasia, including Il Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Sächsische Staatsoper (Dresden), Hamburgische Staatsoper (Hamburg), Komische Oper (Berlin), Deutsche Oper im Rhein (Düsseldorf), Baden Baden Festspielhaus, Theater 11 (Zurich), Waldbühne Berlin, Open Air Graz, Olympiahalle München, Mercedes-Benz Arena Berlin (now the Uber Arena), Hallenstadion Zürich (CH), Wiener Stadthalle Wien (OE), Luminato Festival (Toronto), Wales Millennium Centre (UK), National Theater Concert Hall of Taiwan (Taipei), New Zealand International Arts Festival (Wellington NZ), Béla Bartók National Concert Hall (Budapest), Festival Internazionale di Villa Adriana (Tivoli), Spoleto USA, Ravinia Festival (Chicago), Lincoln Center's Rose Theater (NYC), the Barbican Centre (London), and the Sydney Opera House, among many others.
Beginning as a music education major specializing in special music education, Daniel earned a BM from Wichita State University. He completed his MM at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he also pursued an MFA in drama—musical theatre, a distinguished but short-lived program. His voice teachers included Dr. Lavinia Chereches, Dr. George Gibson, and Barbara Reed-Honn.
Prior to joining UC Irvine, Keeling maintained a vocal studio of 25 private vocal students around Germany. He also taught music at several primary and secondary schools (grade, middle, and high schools) in Berlin.
