Dan Meyers
An Eclectic Path
A native of Washington state, Dan Meyers graduated from Whitman College with BA degrees in Music and English Literature, later obtaining an MM in Historical Performance from the Longy School of Music in Boston. Beginning his musical life as a trombonist with an interest in jazz, he discovered Renaissance and Baroque music during his undergraduate years, and began learning to play the recorder and other historical wind and brass instruments. For three seasons he was part of the Tony award-winning musical ensemble of the Utah Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City UT, also playing in theatrical productions in Las Vegas and Phoenix, AZ.
Dan received a Watson Fellowship to study Irish traditional music, and lived for two years in Galway (Ireland), studying the uilleann pipes with Eamonn Brophy, Mick O’Brien, and others. While living in Ireland he was also a chorister at Galway Cathedral, and performed as a vocalist in many venues in Ireland and England, including the Galway Early Music Festival and the York Early Music Festival under the direction of Jeffrey Skidmore.
In 2003 Dan moved to Boston and began studying recorder at the Longy School of Music. With three fellow Longy students, he co-founded the ensemble Seven Times Salt, with whom he has performed 17th-century English music throughout the US. With early woodwind specialist Dan Stillman, he also formed the Seven Hills Renaissance Wind Band to explore the civic/court wind ensemble repertoire of the 15th to 17th centuries.
Dan has a deep interest in folk music and has developed a reputation as a versatile performer in many traditional styles; in addition to frequent performances of Irish and Scottish music with the groups Ishna and Ulster Landing, he plays music from around the Mediterranean with the multi-cultural folk group Zafarán, has performed Turkish and Turkish-inspired music with the GRAMMY-nominated ensemble DÜNYA, and also played southern Italian music for over a decade with the popular band Newpoli. With various ensembles he has performed folk music from Latin America, Galicia, Brittany, The Republic of Georgia, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, and from both the Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jewish traditions. Also fond of exploring contemporary classical music, he has participated in premieres of compositions by Susan Botti, Juri Seo, Mehmet Ali Sanlikol, David Froom, Steven Sérpa, Karl Henning, and others.
Some highlights from recent seasons include joining the band for the Tony-winning musical “Come From Away” at the Cape Playhouse, a headline performance at the Boston Early Music Festival with the Boston Camerata, performances of 17th-century music of love and loss in Washington DC and Boston with In Stile Moderno, a program of 17th century airs de cour presented in multiple cities in Oregon by Musica Maestrale, a performance of French ars subtilior music with Severall Friends in Santa Fe, DÜNYA’s 20th Anniversary Concert in Jordan Hall, performing and teaching at the Early Music Latin America Festival in El Paso, a concert of music honoring Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz with the Baroque Chamber Orchestra of Colorado in Denver, and providing live accompaniment for the 1920s silent films “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and the “Three Musketeers” with Hesperus in NYC, Washington DC, and Boston.
Other career credits include a stint in the early-instrument band for the Globe Theatre on Broadway, a solo multi-bagpipe concert at the Newport Folk Festival, a multimedia production of Orff’s “Carmina Burana” at the Chautauqua Institution, recording medieval video game music with the Boston Camerata, the premieres of Juri Seo’s “Parliament of Fowls” and David Froom’s “Lament for the City” with the Folger Consort in Washington DC, performing and recording Susan Botti’s “River Spirits” in NYC, and a set at the Festival “La Luna e i Calanchi” in Basilicata (Italy).
From 2016 – 2023 Dan served as Director of Early Winds for the Five Colleges Early Music Program in western MA. He currently teaches at Tufts University, has been a frequent instructor at the Pinewoods Early Music Week, maintains a private studio in Boston, and coaches ensembles for various amateur recorder societies around New England.
Additionally, he serves as President of the Board for SoHIP, an organization dedicated to providing concert opportunities for innovative historically-informed performances in the Boston area.
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