Dr. Daniel McDavitt is Director of Cadet Vocal Music at the United States Coast Guard Academy, where he oversees a vocal music program that includes four choral ensembles, a robust touring schedule, and a yearly musical production. Previous to this appointment, he was associate professor of music and director of the Goucher College Choirs and Orchestra, director of choral studies at Loyola University Maryland, and acting director of choirs at Knox College. He is also director of the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Chorus.

An award-winning composer and educator, Dr. McDavitt’s compositions and arrangements have been performed and broadcast throughout the United States and abroad. His music is published by Walton Music, E. C. Schirmer Publishing, Gentry Publications, and Jackman Music, along with a number of self-published works. He has received a commission from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, won first prize in the Magnum Opus Composition Competition, and regularly accepts commissions from community, university, and school choral ensembles from around the country. He has also received numerous grants for music research and to promote new works by living composers. In 2017, he was honored with the Excellence in Teaching Award at Goucher College, and presented his research at the Oxford Conducting Institute at St. Anne's College at the University of Oxford (UK) in 2018 and 2020.

Born and raised in Missouri, he holds a bachelor of arts degree in music and humanities and a master of music degree in choral conducting from Brigham Young University, and a doctor of musical arts degree in choral conducting and literature, with a minor in theory/composition, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. McDavitt is a member of the American Choral Directors Association and the National Collegiate Choral Organization, where he serves on the national board, as well as the College Music Society, and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).

He lives in Connecticut with his wife, writer and photographer Jenika Beck McDavitt, and their two children.

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