Daniel Tones is an award-winning percussionist equally committed to fostering creative development in aspiring musicians. He has given concerts across Canada, the United States, Asia, and the United Kingdom, performed with internationally recognized percussionists Bob Becker, Aiyun Huang, Morris Palter, and Steve Schick, and been broadcast nationally on radio and television. Daniel studied with Salvador Ferreras, Russell Hartenberger, and John Rudolph, and was the first person to receive a doctorate in percussion performance from a Canadian university.
Daniel is widely recognized for his work as a contemporary percussionist in the fields of solo and chamber-ensemble performance. Recent highlights include solo tours in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States; performances at Birmingham’s BEAST FEaST, the Vancouver New Music Festival, the Ojai Festival, and the Banff Summer Arts Festival; recitals in major international venues such as the Barbican’s Milton Court Concert Hall in London, England; and guest appearances with the TorQ percussion quartet.
Global drumming traditions first drew Daniel to percussion. He studied frame drumming, West African drumming and dance, Balinese gamelan, and Cuban percussion with master musicians, and performed professionally in salsa ensembles for over 10 years. For ten seasons he was the Principal Percussionist of the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra, and he has also performed with the Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria symphonies, the CBC Vancouver Radio Orchestra, and the Vancouver Opera.
Daniel is also a successful arts administrator dedicated to the development of the performing arts in Canada and abroad. He serves on the Board of Directors for the National Youth Orchestra of Canada and is the Chair of the Percussive Arts Society’s International Committee. Some of his most significant contributions to the performing arts locally and regionally came through his work as the Music Program Coordinator for the District of West Vancouver. In this role he designed and implemented a vibrant array of private and group music lessons, summer camps, drama, and musical theatre classes. Under Daniel’s leadership from 2009 to 2017, enrollment in these programs grew from 70 students to 270, and his instructional team expanded from three to 18.
Daniel teaches at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and leads Vancouver’s Contemporary Percussion Intensive. He is a Yamaha artist-educator and Sabian endorser, and provides workshops regularly to students across Canada and abroad. In recent years he was the Percussion Coach for the Canadian Wind Orchestra, the National Youth Band of Canada, and the Prairie Music Residency.
Dr. Tones is the recipient of fellowships from the University of Toronto, the Government of Ontario, and the University of British Columbia, and individual grants or awards from the British Columbia Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Vancouver Foundation, the Fund for the Arts on the North Shore, and the SOCAN Foundation.