Biography
Experience & Education
Daniel Watson is a versatile teacher, musician, and composer, living in Central Indianapolis with over 10 years in the industry. Watson is the Choral Director at Greenwood Community School Corporation in Central Indiana where he teaches beginner to advanced concert choir, chamber choir, and piano class. Watson is also an Associate Faculty of Voice at Indiana University Indianapolis Department of Music and Arts Technology, where he teaches applied voice lessons to music majors and non-majors. He is the owner of Daniel Watson Music LLC where he maintains an active private music studio (voice, piano, composition) and regularly collaborates in the community through conducting, piano and vocal performance, and composing. He previously worked as the Director of Music at Covenant Christian High School in Indianapolis where he taught choirs, band, and music theory. He also served as the Organist at Pleasant Run United Methodist Church from 2015-2021.
Watson graduated magna cum laude from the University of Indianapolis with a Bachelor of Music in Music Education studying piano with Dr. Richard Ratliff, voice with Dr. Kathleen Hacker, and composition with Dr. John Berners as his principal instructors. He completed his NCSA Graduate Fellowship, earning his Masters of Arts in Education in Instruction and Curriculum Design at York College, with a research focus in behavioral, cognitive, and emotional student engagement.
Awards & Associations
.jpg)
Watson has been recognized for his dedication to music education with the Outstanding Future Music Educator of the Year Award (2015) from the Indiana Music Education Association and the National Professional Achievement Award (2014, 2015) from the National Association for Music Education. His first choral masterwork, Virtues and Vices, premiered at the University of Indianapolis in 2024, commissioned by Sound Ecologies Inc. In 2023, he won the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir National Christmas Carol Commission Competition with his work “Good News!”. Watson was featured as a guest composer and performer at the University of Indianapolis’ Friday Nights at the Keyboard Concert Series in "Ligeti and Watson" premiering his original piano composition Twelve Sweets for Piano: Études You Can Stomach.
In 2014, his performance of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 3 earned him the Madge Cathcart Gerke Music Performance Award from the Mu Phi Epsilon Foundation. He is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, Indiana Choral Directors Association, and the National Association for Music Education (NAfME).
Community & Collaboration
In addition to teaching, Mr. Watson is regularly collaborating and performing in the community through conducting, directing, and performing. Watson has had the privilege of performing, directing, and premiering compositions at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and venues throughout Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, and the United States. He continues to be commissioned for new works for professional, collegiate, high school, and middle school singers. From 2015-2021 he sang first tenor with his wonderful wife, Bethany, in the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir, under the direction of Artistic Director Dr. Eric Stark. He has directed, music directed, and performed in many plays and musicals.
Having worked with composers such as William Bolcom, Ellen Taafee Zwilich, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Stacey Garrop, his compositions have been performed at Hilbert Circle Theatre, University of Indianapolis, and Butler University, and beyond. Inspired by the beauty of the natural world, Watson’s music challenges performers and audiences to heighten their senses through sound.
.jpg)
Photo by McIntyre Imaging