DANIEL KEPL FULL BIO

“For Seattleites, chamber music will never be the same.” - Seattle Times

American conductor, arts administrator, and music/theater/dance critic, Daniel Kepl, has served as artistic director, conductor, and chamber music coach for several performing arts organizations over a span of nearly six decades, including Santa Barbara Youth Symphony, which he founded while still in high school, Seattle Festival Ballet, Music Associates (Seattle), Seattle Wind Ensemble, Seattle Debut Orchestra, California Chamber Orchestra, San Luis Obispo (California) Symphony, Ventura County (California) Symphony (New West Symphony), Lancaster-Palmdale (California) Symphony, California Philharmonic Association, Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra, Oregon Light Opera (Portland) and American Collegiate Symphony Orchestra.

An enthusiastic advocate for American music, Daniel Kepl founded Seattle residencies by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival (1979-1992) which spawned a chamber music renaissance in that city. Some years later, he founded and was artistic director of the Santa Barbara Chamber Music Festival, which specialized in presenting repertoire by American composers (2003-2008).

A professional performing arts critic of integrity and spirited intellect since the age of 16, writing for print and other media in several cities in which he has lived over the years, Daniel Kepl is also highly regarded for his casual but perceptive video interviews with performing artists in music/theater/dance from around the world.

Kepl’s broad experience as a conductor, together with an intuitive understanding of new music, has given broad energy and substance to his thoughtful reviews of hundreds of internationally released CD’s, live stream concerts and recitals posted regularly at performingartsreview.net.

Daniel Kepl has amply earned the imprimatur Seattle-based Northwest Arts magazine bestowed on him in 1982 - “Visionary.”

Born in the Pacific Northwest (Spokane, Washington - 1948) Daniel Kepl’s family moved to Santa Barbara, California, in 1960. In 1965 at the age of 16, after an inspiring two years playing clarinet in the All-California High School Symphony, Kepl founded the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony, studying with Dr. Erno Daniel, conductor of the Santa Barbara Symphony at that time, and pianist/conductor Reginald Stewart, faculty member at the Music Academy of the West.

The young maestro moved to Los Angeles in 1969 to continue his conducting studies with Henri Temianka, conductor of the California Chamber Symphony, and at the California Institute of the Arts (1969-1972) as its first conducting major, under the close mentoring of Lawrence Leighton Smith, winner of the Mitropoulos International Conducting Competition in 1964, and recently engaged as a member of the faculty at the School of Music.

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“He has a thorough and artistic understanding of the score, with a fine conducting technique. Kepl was in his element as he led the ensemble through a most sensitive and warm performance,” wrote the eminent musicologist, Dr. Roger Grove, of the 17 year old conductor’s interpretation of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music with the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony and Santa Barbara High School Choir.

“His organizational ability has been evident from the start, and distinguishes him as one to watch,” reported the Santa Barbara News-Press, in an editorial page article in 1965 about Kepl’s founding of the Santa Barbara Youth Symphony titled, Something New, Exciting is Born.

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During his college years at the California Institute of the Arts, which from its founding, has maintained Walt Disney’s dream as the intellectual epicenter for California’s performing, visual, dance and film avant-garde, the School of Music faculty at the time, including composers Morton Subotnick and Mel Powell, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, with whom Kepl studied briefly, cellist Joel Krosnick, and pianist Leonid Hambro, who played Mozart concerti (14 & 17) on two concert occasions for the young maestro with the Lancaster-Palmdale and San Luis Obispo Symphony Orchestras, influenced Kepl’s thinking and musical taste profoundly.

Enhanced by day to day hands-on conducting experience, performing cutting edge contemporary repertoire with CalArts students and faculty under the tutelage of Lawrence Leighton Smith, the young maestro quickly developed his acute affinity for contemporary music.

An inveterate impresario, Daniel Kepl brought now world famous pianist Emanuel Ax to Santa Barbara for the first time in 1974, shortly after the relatively unknown young artist had garnered the highest prize at the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Israel. That same year, Kepl invited his friends from Seattle, the Kronos Quartet, to present their first recital in Santa Barbara after hearing them perform their signature piece at the time in Seattle, George Crumb’s Black Angels.

Spending summers in Seattle and winters in Santa Barbara, making music in both cities seemed ideal in the early 70’s but quickly became impractical.

After a whirlwind period of intense study abroad and at home - London’s Trinity College of Music, now Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, with BBC television’s legendary conductor, Bernard Keeffe; in Brussels with Irwin Hoffman, who at that time was conducting the Belgian National Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales; a stint in Brazil, studying with Eleazar de Carvalho, conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony and in his hometown with Donald Thulean, conductor at the time of the Spokane Symphony Orchestra - Kepl decided to settle in Seattle more permanently, staying there until 1982, conducting for Seattle Festival Ballet, Seattle Debut Orchestra, and Seattle Wind Ensemble.

In the summer of 1979 Daniel Kepl presented the first residency in Seattle by the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival. The entire roster of 22 internationally famous musicians were flown from the Festival’s New Mexico home to Seattle for a seven-day world-class celebration of chamber music. The annual Seattle residencies by the Festival (1979-1992) inspired a dramatic chamber music renaissance in that city. With unprecedented support from the Seattle Times and the University of Washington, master classes, new music premieres, solo recitals, and concerts were acclaimed unanimously by the critics.

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“For Seattleites, chamber music will never be the same.” - Seattle Times.

“An inescapable and joyous part of this city’s musical life. High praise and gratitude to Daniel Kepl. He has brought a unique and memorable musical experience to Seattle. A total artistic success.” - Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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Returning to Santa Barbara in 1982 to be closer to his aging parents, Daniel Kepl quickly became involved again in the artistic life of the city and region, reviewing performing arts events for media outlets throughout southern California, video chatting with artists in various disciplines, both in California and beyond, for his Bravo California! website, founding the Santa Barbara Chamber Music Festival (2003-2008), which brought many of Kepl’s chamber music colleagues from around the country to Santa Barbara each June to perform American chamber music exclusively, setting up two London residencies by the American Collegiate Symphony, and briefly serving as General Manager of the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra.

Now semi-retired, Daniel Kepl has focused his energies over the past several years on performingartsreview.net, his website dedicated to interviewing artists from around the world about their CD releases, and hosting Performing Arts Review Travel summer trips to various countries, including Cuba in 2017 and an upcoming tour of Portugal in June, 2023.

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Critical praise for Santa Barbara Chamber Music Festival

“One of the most exciting new developments on the local cultural landscape. The Festival’s programming is nice and juicy.” - Josef Woodard/Santa Barbara News-Press (2004)

“A smorgasbord of delectable curiosities.” - PeterFrisch/Sant Barbara News-Press (2005)

“Charming and audience-friendly, these works demonstrated the ensemble’s terrific sound, technical fluidity, emotional intensity and rhythmic vigor.” Jessica Wood/Santa Barbara News-Press (2003)

“An extraordinary combination of brilliant performances and wonderfully fresh and beautiful music.” - Gerald Carpenter/Santa Barbara Independent (2006)