Dan Meunier
Assistant Director
In the Mt. Lebanon Percussion program, Daniel Meunier teaches private lessons for grades four through twelve. He also instructs the Concert Ensemble and the African Ensemble, which focuses on music from the countries of Guinea and Ghana in west Africa. Mr. Meunier is also the Director of the Mt. Lebanon Summer Percussion Camp, teaching the African Drumming class. His private lessons are geared towards a total percussion experience. In addition to traditional concert percussion instruction of Snare, Timpani, Mallets and Auxiliary percussion, Dan instructs students on various aspects of drum set performance from American rock and pop forms to jazz and Latin music styles. He also incorporates various aspects and instruments of world percussion (Djembe, Djun-djun, Congas, Steel drums etc …) in this effort, building students knowledge of rhythm, creativity and improvisation.
Mr. Meunier is a graduate of Ithaca College with a Bachelors in Music Performance, studying with world renowned marimbist Gordon Stout. He obtained his Masters in Music Performance from West Virginia University, focusing on world music where he was also adjunct faculty at Alderson-Broaddus College, teaching percussion pedagogy and percussion lessons. Since he has moved to Pittsburgh, he has a private percussion studio at Brighton Music Center and at home in addition to his duties at Mt. Lebanon. He also is a residency artist in African music, dance and steel drumming.
Mr. Meunier is very active as a performer throughout the Pittsburgh area. He performs in the world music percussion ensemble Resonance Percussion and is responsible for co-writing and performing in Caribbean Traditions and Passport to Rhythm, Gateway to the Arts educational shows on the history of the steel drum and the intermixing of percussion music from all over the world. Mr. Meunier’s work on the steel drums can also be heard in the traditional Caribbean sounds of Dr. Kwasi and the Islanders and the popular John McDonald and the Mango Men. Dan also works as an accompanist for the Mary Miller Dance Company, a modern dance company in Pittsburgh and is formerly a member of the Umoja African Arts Company which specializes in djembe music from Guinea. Dan occasionally works as a recording artist and can be heard most recently on Resonance’s debut album and Rusted Root’s newest work, The Movement. Additionally, Dan is the drum set player for Tuika’s Island Magic, a show specializing in music and dance from Polynesia and enjoys playing drum set in a variety of other local projects.
