New York native Daniel Keene performs on an array of historic and modern plucked string instruments including lutes of the 16th century and early 17th century, bandora, vihuela, Baroque guitar, nineteenth century guitar, modern guitar, and extended electric guitars. He has concertized extensively as a soloist, consort player, chamber player, and pit orchestra musician in New York and throughout the United States.
Current projects include Thomas Morley's First Booke of Ayres on lute with tenor Drew Ivarson as the Poore Astronomers, 19th Century violin and guitar duos with Lisa Casal-Galietta as the Moka Pot Duo, Renaissance lute duets with lutenist Matthew Weinman, and newly composed duets for piano and 8-string electric guitar with Dr. Fang-Yi Chu. Daniel was the lutenist, guitarist, and arranger for New Place Player’s 2023 Off-Broadway production of William Shakespeare’s Othello which received critical praise. Daniel is the guitarist for The Red Door Chamber Players and The Samadi-Keene Piano & Guitar Duo. He has performed with Long Island Baroque Ensemble, The Bacheler Consort, New York Continuo Collective, The Golden Williams Duo, and many others.
A dedicated teacher, Daniel has been teaching in New York for over twenty years. He has been on the music faculty at SUNY Nassau Community College since 2013; teaching applied guitar as well as directing the NCC Guitar Ensemble. He has also served on the faculty at Adelphi University where he taught guitar and directed the Adelphi Guitar Ensemble. Daniel offers lessons at his home studio in Queens, NY and online globally.
Daniel currently studies early music on a variety of instruments with Xavier Díaz-Latorre. He studied early music and guitar with Jerry Willard and William Zito, guitar with Stephen Leonard, and voice with Jonathan Goodman. Through workshops, master classes, and coachings he has worked on musical interpretation with lutenist Crawford Young, lutenist Grant Herreid, harpsichordist Arthur Haas, violinist Dr. Linda Sinanian, flutist Linda Wetherill, pianist Susan Sobolewski, and guitarists João Luiz and Paul Cesarczyk among many others. He attended SUNY Stony Brook University, Adelphi University, and SUNY Nassau Community College.
"Daniel Keene is a guitarist and lutenist of exceptional ability, combining a comprehensive technique and scholarship with an innate musicality."
Jerry Willard, guitarist & lutenist