Bio:
Dr. Daniel A. Gordon began his professional music ministry at the age of eighteen when he was hired as a tenor in the choir of First Presbyterian Church, Dunkirk, NY. He has led music programs in Presbyterian churches in Weedsport, NY; Oakland, FL; Norfolk, VA; Yorktown, VA; and Canton, NY before arriving at First Presbyterian Church in Lakeland. Dr. Gordon also serves as Director of Choral Activities at Southeastern University.
At First Presbyterian Church, Dr. Gordon leads one of Central Florida’s finest and most varied Fine Arts Ministries. He has founded the FPC Performing Arts Series that brings world-renowned performing ensembles such as Chanticleer, Take 6, and the American Boychoir to eager Central Florida audiences. In the spring of 2013 he served as Guest Conductor of the Central Florida Bach Festival Choir in two performances of Bach cantatas 78 and 131 as well as the Buxtehude Missa Brevis.
At Southeastern University, Dr. Gordon conducts the Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, and the Women’s Chorus. He teaches all courses in the Music History curriculum as well as the conducting courses. He has offered workshops and conference sessions on choral conducting, sacred music, and music education at national and state music conferences and has conducted festival choruses in nearly every state on the Eastern Seaboard and in Hawaii and Canada.
Dr. Gordon’s personal commitment to the proliferation of music programs in schools, communities, and churches across America has also included a thirty-five year career as an educator. After teaching for fifteen years in public schools, he served as choral director and Chair of Music Education at The Crane School of Music, SUNY Potsdam. Dr. Gordon is the recipient of one of the State University of New York’s Research Awards for his work on “Teach Music in New York City”, a congressionally funded project that was designed to bring qualified music teachers to the lives of children populating the nation’s largest public school system. His performances leading the college’s historic Crane Chorus included Orff’s Carmina Burana, Haydn’s Creation, Berlioz’s Messe Solennelle, Brahms’ Schicksalslied and Alto Rhapsody, Poulenc’s Gloria, Hindemith’s When Lilacs Last at the Dooryard Bloom’d, and the world premiere of Paul Steinberg’s Wind & Water, with a text by Daniel’s talented wife, Mary Grace Gordon. Prior to his appointment at Crane, Dr. Gordon served as Director of Vocal Studies at Christopher Newport University.
As Musical Director of the Ottawa Choral Society for three seasons, Dr. Gordon frequently collaborated with the National Arts Centre Orchestra under the direction of Pinchas Zukerman. He prepared the OCS for additional performances with Franz-Paul Decker, Joel Revzen, David Currie, and Duain Wolfe and also programmed and conducted the choir’s highly respected subscription series. Among the highlights of his time with the Choral Society was an all Brahms and Bruckner program with the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra and the UK premiere of Morton Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna with the English Chamber Orchestra and later with the Bath Philharmonia.
Dr. Gordon holds his BM from SUNY at Fredonia and his Masters and Doctorate from The Florida State University College of Music. Daniel is very proud of his wonderful family. His wife Mary Grace is an Equity actress, brilliant soprano, and arts education consultant. His son David is a computer programmer with a bachelor’s degree from Rollins College and his son Britt is seeking a BFA in acting from Florida State University.