Danny grew up in Southern California, where he attended South Shores Performing Arts elementary school, Dodson middle school, Hamilton Academy of music, and Cal State Northridge. His Father is an actor, drummer, and published author. His Mom was an executive manager with Honeywell for many years and is now pursuing a career as a writer. As a child, Danny was very active in sports, music, and theatre. He did a few commercials as a youngster, as well as multiple AFI student films. At the age of ten, he started drum lessons with studio great, Fred Petry. Fred laid the foundation of rudiments and reading that would lead Danny down a successful road in music. While at The Hamilton Academy of Music, Danny began lessons with Jerry Steinholtz. Amongst the many lessons learned from Jerry, the phrase “the more you play the more you work” inspired Danny to always learn as much as possible. The Hamilton years kept him busy. As the quarter back of the football team, he led them to their first playoff appearance in over 10 years. He also performed as a lead dancer in Guys and Dolls, then as Joe Hardy in Damn Yankees. As a member of the Jazz Ensemble, Wind Ensemble, Symphony Orchestra, Percussion Ensemble, and Jazz combo, Danny was recognized multiple times for outstanding musicianship and solos.While pursuing a Bachelors of Music degree in Percussion Performance at Cal State Northridge, Danny began playing in local regional theaters. It was in these productions that he really honed the art of playing musical theatre. He also put in some time at the Southern California theme parks. For 3 years he played the Terminator in the T2:3D stunt show at Universal Studios Hollywood. As a green army man, he led the troops in song and dance for the Block Party Bash at Disney’s California Adventure. In addition to the theme parks, he also worked as an assistant to one of Southern California’s premier children’s entertainers, John Abrams. With John, Danny had the opportunity to learn magic as well as the art of networking.Upon graduation, Danny hit the road with Phoenix Entertainment’s national tours of Man of La Mancha & Gypsy. These shows served many purposes. They allowed him to improve even more as a player, they led him to meet his beautiful wife Kelly, and they provided an opportunity for him to learn all about the back stage side of theatre. During ...La Mancha, Danny served as the “pit rat,” where the duties were to set up/breakdown the entire orchestra pit in every city. On Gypsy, he served as an assistant electrician, carpenter, and rigger, all while keeping the show schedule as the drummer.
After 2 exciting years on the road, he headed east to NYC to pursue a career on the great white way. Before he had even made the move, lightning struck fast as he landed a job playing drums for the Off-Broadway hit, The Marvelous Wonderettes. While playing ...Wonderettes, he began subbing as a percussionist at In The Heights. The connections made there lead to playing drums on the 1st national tour of Legally Blonde: The Musical. While on the road with ...Blonde, Danny began presenting his college lectures on the importance of understanding the business side of music, which led to the co-creation of www.beyondthegig.com. He continued these lectures while on the road with the first national tour of Sister Act The Musical. Also on Sister Act, Danny had the opportunity to develop his conducting skills when he served as the associate conductor.Danny recently completed two out of town runs of Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame, where he had the privilege of working with the incredible creative team on developing the drum/percussion book. Danny is currentlyon the road again playing drums and serving as assistant conductor for the first national tour of Disney’s Aladdin. When not on the road, he enjoys a very busy teaching schedule with the Manhattan Drum School. In addition to being a musician & teacher, he has worked as a musical director and arranger. He plays a variety of gigs in and around NYC including singer/songwriters, readings/workshops of new shows, cabarets, rock bands, and multiple gigs with Gallant Entertainment. He can also be seen in several episodes of NBC’s hit show, SMASH!
