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Musical Theatre Portfolio
About Me
I’m Dan, a 21 year old drummer and percussionist from Yorkshire with a love for musical theatre.
I recently completed a BA (Hons) in Music Performance and Production at Leeds Beckett University, finishing with a first class degree, which has equipped me with a solid foundation in musicianship, with experience across both live performance and studio settings. This has also allowed me to become comfortable performing with and without click tracks.
As a confident multi-instrumentalist (drums/percussion, keys, guitars, bass, and brass), I’ve worked on a range of amateur dramatic productions in both musician and musical director roles. I’m reliable, quick to adapt, and always focused on supporting the musical and creative goals of a production.
Over the past 14 years, I have gained invaluable experience playing in a variety of ensembles, including brass bands, concert orchestras, choirs (singing and accompaniment), as well as conducting a variety of musical theatre based remote recording projects.
Most recently, I wrote a short musical for my final project at university, which I enlisted the help of musicians from all around the world to help record - you can find a link to this here.
Please click below to download a formal copy of my CV:
Show Footage
Past Shows
KES
2016 ~ Scalby School
Stephen Joseph Theatre
This was my first real experience playing in a pit band. Although the show itself was not a musical, we added musical interludes between scenes, often covers of songs from the 60s to stay stylistically appropriate to the show. I was on drum kit for this production.
MACBETH
2018 ~ Scalby School
Stephen Joseph Theatre
Due to the absence of our music teacher, for my next bi-annual production with Scalby School, I took the mantel as MD, along with composing and arranging the show's score, playing drums and percussion, and also jumping onto piano and synths for a few numbers. Again, the show itself was not a musical, however there was a significant amount of underscoring, and musical interludes between scenes. My work during this production led to the Stephen Joseph Theatre offering me a new position of Youth Musical Director.
ANNIE
2020 ~ Scalby School
Stephen Joseph Theatre
During my time volunteering at Scalby School, after leaving as a student, we began preparing for our bi-annual production, this time an actual musical. I acted as audition and rehearsal pianist, along with co-musical director (following the appointment of a new music teacher). I was also going to be playing drums and percussion within the pit band, and as such had spent time learning the score and programming tuned percussion elements within MainStage. However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, this show had to be cancelled and never made it to the stage, despite a lot of preparation and rehearsal.
OLIVER!
2024 ~ Encore Theatre Company
Castleford Civic Centre
This was my first time playing in the pit band for an amateur dramatics society, and was also the first time I was paid for playing in a pit band too. The MD, Joel Griffin, had tasked me with playing a strings reduction on keyboards as there wasn't enough in the budget to pay for 3 strings players. I programmed a variety of different patches within MainStage to accommodate the different playing styles of the strings family (arco, pizzicato, tremolo, etc). Although this wasn't an instrument I felt the most natural with, I thoroughly enjoyed my time working on this show, and even managed to convince some audience members that the famous cadenzas in 'Reviewing The Situation' were being played on a real violin.
SISTER ACT
2025 ~ Encore Theatre Company
Pontefract Town Hall
This was my first time playing in the pit band for an actual musical that made it to the stage on drums and percussion, which I would consider to be my main instruments. The MD, Karen Harris, had given me both the drum score and the percussion score, and asked me to put as much of both parts in as possible. With that in mind, I took the time to re-write the score to combine them both in order to make it easier to follow. I had set up my acoustic drum kit, along with a variety of auxiliary percussion instruments, a glockenspiel, a 32 note MIDI keyboard (for vibes, tubular bells, xylophone, and crotales) and 2 electronic drum pads (for timpani, electronic claps, and church bells). This show was so much fun to play, and led to being booked for their next summer show of 'Calendar Girls' and their next pantomime in the new year.
Tuned Percussion
Equipment
DRUM KIT
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Sonor AQX Drum Kit in Midnight Sparkle - 18" Kick, 13" Snare, 8"/12"/13"/14" Toms (additional 14" Kick)
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Zildjian K Series Cymbals - 8" Splash, 14" Hi-Hats, 14" Mini China, 16" Dark Crash, 18" Dark Crash, 20" Ride
ELECTRONIC DRUM KIT
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Alesis Forge Electronic Drum Kit - Kick, Snare, 3x Toms, Hi-Hats, Crash, Ride
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Access to Roland TD-12 Electronic Drum Kit - Kick, Snare, 3x Toms, Hi-Hats, 2x Crash, Ride
TUNED PERCUSSION
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Atlas Percussion 2.5 Octave Glockenspiel (442 Hz)
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M-Audio Keystation Mini 32 MIDI Controller (paired with MainStage)
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M-Audio Keystation 88 MIDI Controller (paired with MainStage)
AUXILIARY PERCUSSION
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TreeWorks Mark Tree (Wind Chimes)
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LP Shaker
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Egg Shaker
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Triangle
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Cowbell
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Small Jam Block
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Vibraslap
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Flex-a-tone
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Slide Whistle
IN-EAR MONITORS
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Ultimate Ears Pro - Custom Moulded UE5s
Other Musicals Projects
Professional Sit-In Experiences
SCHOOL OF ROCK
2022 UK Tour - Leeds Grand Theatre - Keys 2 (Sam Hall)
MD: Michael Riley
JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT
2022 UK Tour - Bradford Alhambra - Keys 3 (Millie Davies)
MD: Ben Turner
LES MISERABLES
2022 UK Tour - Leeds Grand Theatre - Percussion (Oliver Pooley)
MD: Giles Deacon
THE BODYGUARD
2023 UK Tour - Leeds Grand Theatre - Keys 2 (Laurence Stannard)
MD: Sam Hall
JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT
2025 UK Tour - Leeds Grand Theatre - Drums (Paul Rosi)
MD: John Rigby
DEAR EVAN HANSEN
2025 UK Tour - York Grand Opera House - Drums (Guy Richman)
MD: Daniel Glover
Reviews & Testimonials
"Dan is an absolute delight to work with. A very talented young musician, drummer and percussionist whose enthusiasm, energy, dedication and passion are inspiring and infectious to all around him.
His performances throughout the week reflect an amazing young talent which is honed through lots of hard work, dedication and practice. He demonstrates solid technical skills and the flexibility to cover both the drum and percussion scores to provide an amazing contribution to the overall orchestral sound as required which contributed to the excellent reviews and feedback received about the band.
Dan created a strong foundation for the band with a solid sense of time and excellent execution of the '70's Philadelphia disco groove' required for the show, understanding how to fit into the mix knowing when to hold back or drive the band forward.
Nice work, Dan - a truly great job and a fantastic asset to the band!"
(Karen Harris - Musical Director)
To hear what others think, please click below: