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Margaret Daniel

Portrait of Margaret DanielMargaret Daniel, soprano, is Professor of Voice and Vocal Studies in the School of Music and Performing Arts at the University of Louisiana – Lafayette. She earned her baccalaureate degree from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and her Master of Music in Vocal Performance/Pedagogy from the University of Wisconsin (Madison). Additionally she pursued graduate vocal studies at Boston University. Most recently she attended the Music Academy of the West and participated in master classes presented by Marilyn Horne and Warren Jones.

Her singing career has included numerous leading soprano roles in opera, oratorio, operetta, and musical theatre. Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette, Verdi’s Rigoletto, Verdi’s La Traviata, Smetana’s Bartered Bride, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress; Handel’sMessiah, Haydn’s Creation; Vivaldi’s Gloria, Poulenc’s Gloria, Bach’s St. John’s Passion, Brahms’ Ein Dutches Requieum and Mendelssohn’s Elijah are representative.

As a performer of solo and chamber music she has presented recitals in Orlando, Miami, Baton Rouge, Houston, Minneapolis and Manhattan, KS as well as in many other cities throughout the South and Midwest.

Her undergraduate and graduate voice students rank among the winners and finalists at state and regional voice competitions. Former students, alumni of UL Lafayette, have been district winners of the Metropolitan Opera auditions, have made European debuts in concert and opera and are successful performers, music educators and private voice teachers across the country and have been accepted at and completed advanced vocal degrees at prestigious universities throughout the nation.

Her students have also been selected for summer young artist programs with Opera in the Ozarks, American Singers Opera Project (ASOP), the Seagle Colony summer program and the prestigious American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria as well as with Opera Classica Europa under the direction of Michael Vaccaro. They have performed with various professional opera companies including New Orleans Opera, the Jackson(MS) Opera, Ft. Collins (CO) Opera and with the Bogota (Colombia) Opera Theatre.

A member of the Graduate Faculty she has presented peer-reviewed, invited lectures and lecture recitals for regional conferences of the College Music Society, Louisiana Music Teachers Association, Louisiana Music Educators Association and has been a clinician/master teacher for the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). Mrs. Daniel has also been a member of the faculty for the annual summer Music Symposium at Kansas State University in Manhattan. Her peer-reviewed publications deal with voice pedagogy and vocal repertoire and have been featured in leading professional journals with national and international distribution: Journal of Singing; Music Educators Journal; Choral Journal and The Diapason. In addition to her voice students she also teaches Diction for Singers, Science and Pedagogy of the Voice, Song Literature, and Opera Literature. In three different recent years the university awarded her the distinction of Outstanding Advisor.

As a vocal clinician and adjudicator, Professor Daniel has presented numerous workshops for choral directors, music educators and choral singers. She has adjudicated many voice competitions across the south and has held numerous offices in the professional organizations of Sigma alpha Iota, Louisiana National Association of Teachers of Singing and Phi Kappa Lamba. She was a two year member of the National Board for Vocal Certification of the Music Teachers National Association.

Additionally, Mrs. Daniel is a collaborative pianist and organist. She is listed in the International Who’s Who in Music and Musicians; MarquisWho’s who in America; The World Who’s Who of women; Outstanding Musicians of the 20th Century and Great women of the 21st Century. The American Biographical Institute awarded her the distinction of Woman of the Year.

Email: mdaniel@louisiana.edu

Telephone: (337) 482-5202


Recordings by students of Margaret Daniel

Virginia Hesse: "Alleluia" from Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate, K. 165

Madeline Magnon: "Vedrai Carino," from Mozart's Don Giovanni
Shelby Runyan: "Must the Winter Come so Soon?" from Samuel Barber's Vanessa