about
Dr. Danielle Moreau is a percussionist, educator, and arts entrepreneur based in Gainesville, Florida. She currently serves as adjunct faculty at the University of Florida and maintains a private studio throughout north-central Florida. Prior to her current position, she served as adjunct faculty at the University of New Hampshire where she taught marching percussion for the athletic bands. Additionally, Danielle was the percussion specialist for the Westbrook School Department in Maine where she instructed concert and marching percussion at the secondary level and oversaw all aspects of percussion education for the district. While completing her doctoral work, she served as a graduate teaching assistant in ethnomusicology, responsible for directing the African drum ensemble and percussion jazz ensemble. Danielle is the co-founder of the Moreau | VanTuinen Duo and an active artist, presenter, and clinician throughout the US and Europe.
Dr. Moreau has performed with several ensembles throughout the United States, including the Phoenix Symphony, the Phoenix Theatre, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, and the Ocala Symphony Orchestra. As a soloist, Danielle has been featured at several national and international festivals, including the North American Brass Band Association, the International Alliance for Women in Music, and the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC). She is also co-founder and percussionist of the Moreau | VanTuinen Duo, one of the only all-women percussion/low brass duos in the world. They regularly present at universities across North America discussing career development for 21st-century musicians, authenticity in the performing arts, and professional chamber playing. The duo has performed at the Music by Women Festival, the International Tuba/Euphonium Conference, the International Women’s Brass Conference, the Darkwater Festival, and the Asociación Española de Tubas y Bombardinos Festival in Madrid, Spain.
As a strong proponent for new music, Danielle has expanded contemporary percussion repertoire through the participation in and organization of commissioning projects with composers such as Annika Socolofsky, Steven Snowden, Kevin Day, Ivan Trevino, and Emma O’Halloran. These efforts have resulted in over 30 new compositions since 2015. At the onset of the COVID-19 lockdown, she co-initiated a Call for Miniatures Project for the Moreau | VanTuinen Duo aimed at fostering remote music collaborations. It resulted in 80 newly composed works from 49 different composers, representing 10 countries around the world.
One of her current projects focuses on continuing percussion education for public school teachers. As a music consultant, Danielle provides inventory evaluations, budget proposals, and repair services for band programs and their percussion sections. Her goals for this project include online materials and video databases for educators, as well as in-depth information on percussion parts in wind band literature. Additionally, her research interests include mental and physical well-being in private studio instruction, ergonomic techniques for injury prevention, and strategies for educators teaching beginning adult learners.
Danielle earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Music Performance from Arizona State University. Her culminating project, “Establishing a Percussion Jazz Ensemble at the Collegiate Level”, aims to provide educators with historical context, curricula, resource materials, and arrangements necessary for building and maintaining this unique group. She holds a Master of Music degree in Music Performance from Arizona State University and a Bachelors of Music degree in Music Education from the University of New Hampshire (summa cum laude). Her principal mentors include Dr. JB Smith, Dr. Mark Sunkett, Simone Mancuso, Dom Moio, Shaun Tilburg, Dr. Deanna Swoboda, and Dr. Andrew Boysen, Jr. Danielle is a member of the Percussive Arts Society and is a proud endorser of Black Swamp Percussion, Innovative Percussion, and Marimba One.