Daniel Monek

Bio

Daniel Monek has been a Professor of Music at North Carolina State University in Raleigh since 2016 and served as the Head of the Department of Performing Arts & Technology (formerly Music) until 2023. He currently serves as a Fellow in faculty and academic affairs within the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost where he focuses on policy and strategic initiatives. In addition, Monek is the director of the North Carolina Master Chorale’s auditioned high school Youth Choir and serves each summer as a choral instructor for the NC Governor’s School program for gifted and talented high school students run by the state’s Department of Public Instruction. Prior to coming to North Carolina, he served for sixteen years as the Director of Choral Activities and Department Chair at Marietta College in Ohio where he also developed and led the institution’s Vocal Pedagogy Certificate program.

He received his Ph.D. in Music from Edinburgh University (Scotland) focusing on compositional style analysis and performance practice for sixteenth-century Lamentation settings used in Tenebrae services. He holds degrees in Music Education and Vocal Performance from the University of South Florida. Monek has taught music in Florida’s public schools and was the founding Artistic and Musical Director of the New Edinburgh Orchestra in Scotland. He has served in numerous state and regional leadership positions for the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and as a site evaluator for the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM), music’s accrediting body.

As a conductor, he combines his work in early music styles with a passionate interest in supporting new music and composers, having commissioned and premiered more than thirty choral and orchestral works. His choirs have been invited performers at notable venues throughout the US and abroad including Austria, China, Hungary, Italy, and the United Kingdom. He is in regular demand as a clinician and guest conductor and often presents in the areas of choral and vocal pedagogy, choral tone, the use of kinesthetic gestures in rehearsal, and conducting technique.