About Me

​Daniel Abrahams is currently Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of Arkansas. Previously, Daniel Abrahams was director of Instrumental Music at Omaha's Nathan Hale Magnet Middle School for Leadership and Social Justice and  Bryan Senior High School. A native of Philadelphia, Dr. Abrahams holds a PhD is Music Education from Oakland University, MM in Conducting from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and BME from Temple University. He has studied conducting with Arthur Chodoroff, James Saker and Cina Crissara. In addition, he has attended seminars and workshops with Frank Battisti, Major Mark Peterson, Margaret Hillis, Larry Blocher and Victor Markovich. Active as a performing musician, Dr. Abrahams studied euphonium with Charles Villarubia (Rhythm and Brass) and Jay Krush (Chestnut Brass Company). In 1989, he worked with tuba virtuoso Sam Palafian at the Empire Brass Seminar at Tanglewood and is an alumnus of the Summit Brass summer symposium held in Keystone, Colorado where he studied with Roger Bobo, Michael Colburn and Daniel Perantoni.  As a performer, he has played concerts in Beiging, Shanghai, Montreal, Boston and Philadelphia. He appears on recordings with the Temple University Wind Symphony on the Toshiba/EMI label. With Jay Krush, he organized the first Philadelphia Tuba Christmas, now a traditional holiday musical event.​

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As a music educator, Daniel Abrahams is the inaugural recipient of the Jupiter Band Instruments Award for Excellence in Teaching Concert Band presented by NAFME: The National Association for Music Education and the 2010 Nebraska VFW Citizenship Educator of the Year.  Abrahams has presented seminars at the national meetings of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME); presented a seminar in Critical Pedagogy for Music Education at the Conservatorio Brasiliero de Musica in Rio de Janeiro; presented a seminar on Reciprocal Teaching at the 2nd European Conference on Developmental Psychology of Music, London, England; and recently presented seminars on Reciprocal Teaching and Informal Learning at the 29th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Beijing, China.  Daniel Abrahams made his first guest conducting appearance in March 2001, where he conducted the Omaha Public School's All City Middle School Band. Dr. Abrahams is a contributing author to the book Perspectives on Music in Urban Schools published by NAfME: The National Association for Music Education. Under his leadership, the Bryan Band has received many honors including Outstanding Instrumental Ensemble at the 2000 Music in the Parks Festival, held in Minneapolis, MN. Concurrent to his teaching at Bryan High School, he has also taught instrumental music at Gilder and Chandler View Elementary Schools and is the former director of bands at Division Avenue Senior High School in Levittown, New York.

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Committed to the performance of music by living composers, Dr. Abrahams founded the Bryan High School New Music Project to commission new works for high school bands. In 1999 his Bryan High School band commissioned and premiered Entebbe Variations by local composer Keith Davis. Since its first performance, the piece has been played by the USAF Heartland of America Band, the University of Nebraska at Omaha Wind Ensemble, the Southwest Texas State University Band, and the Nebraska Wind Symphony and is published by Wengert -Jones. In May 2001, the Bryan Band performed the world premier of Above All Others, a commission for the Bryan Band by New Jersey composer, Dr. Joel Phillips.