Daniel Kelly

Art Form(s):

Artist Statement

I've traveled all over the country & noticed that Shakespeare's plays are being performed in towns large and small. But like many people, his plays were hard for me to understand. So I used composing and playing music as a doorway to dive into Shakespeare's work & understand it better.

We have performed this music throughout the US and found that students had a great first experience with Shakespeare - and with many different styles of music (jazz, salsa, reggae & more!)

We get students singing along with us! It's been scientifically researched that singing is an effective way to remember new information. Students will easily remember (and be able to sing!) Shakespeare's most famous lines!

Artist Bio

Composer & pianist Daniel Kelly creates work that explores the meeting place of music with literature & visual art. He has been commissioned by 13 performing arts centers throughout the country to transform peoples’ stories into concert-length works celebrating our shared human experience. His music has been declared “powerfully moving” by Time Out NY. He has performed with a long list of musicians such as jazz legends Joe Lovano, Sheila Jordan, Dave Liebman & Don Byron, hip-hop star Lauryn Hill & many others. Kelly toured Southeast Asia & India as part of the Kennedy Center/US State Department-sponsored Jazz Ambassador program. For 25 years, he has performed in schools & for family audiences in theaters (in almost every state in the US) with his longtime collaborator, storyteller David Gonzalez.

Find him on social media:

Instagram – @danielkellypiano; Facebook – @DanielKellyMusic