Dan Hartung, DMA
Dan Hartung
Drums, Music Theory, Percussion
Teaching Philosophy
“My personal learning style is activated through curiosity and creativity. I believe a curious, creative mind supports optimal personal, intellectual, and musical growth. As an educator, my philosophy centers around adequately accommodating and supporting the wide variety of curiosities and learning styles my students bring to the classroom. I do this by encouraging students to ask questions, engaging in long-term projects that highlight their unique interests, and fostering a light-hearted educational environment that nurtures creative growth.
My teaching philosophy is predicated on the collective understanding that nothing is obvious. With this acknowledgment in the classroom, my students feel empowered to ask questions uninhibited by fear of intellectual criticism from their peers or me. As a result, I cultivate a safe space where peers actively support asking questions and embrace different learning styles. Consequently, my students feel less intimidated by differences in their growth rates, maximizing the studio's growth as a whole.
I believe project-based learning effectively promotes long-term, sustained growth. To that end, I aim to let my students’ curiosity drive their learning. In addition to continued study to maintain a well-rounded foundation, I find this approach encourages creative exploration and maintains relevance to my students’ unique specialties and career interests. This also emboldens them to take a more acute sense of ownership in their projects.
Lastly, I believe in utilizing mirthful humor as a channel for creativity and learning. I find that a combination of honesty, friendliness, and good-natured humor can tap into students’ multiple intelligences and further foster creativity.
Student curiosity and creativity compel me as both an educator and an artist. As such, my teaching philosophy is designed with flexibility in mind, as it is in a continuous state of refinement and adaptation to best accommodate my students’ various interests, projects, and learning styles from year to year.”
Biography
Dan Hartung is a percussionist and educator in the Boston area. He founded the Austin Percussion Collective (APC) and recently served as Assistant Professor of Music, Percussion Coordinator, and Assistant Director of Bands at Elon University.
Dan regularly performs as a solo, chamber, and orchestral percussionist across the United States. He has a tenacious passion for collaborating and performing with friends, colleagues, and composers, leading him to commission over 20 new works for percussion and create multiple performing ensembles, including Stone’s Throw Quartet, Flat Water Trio, LNK Percussion, and the Austin Percussion Collective. Dan has also served as principal percussionist for The Orchestra San Antonio, having performed for Opera San Antonio, Ballet San Antonio, and the 2024 Andrea Bocelli World Tour.
Since 2014, Dan has worked as a marching percussion educator with some of the most competitive high school and collegiate programs across the country. In 2017, he marched snare drum with the Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps and has since taught James Bowie High School, Vista Ridge High School, Gretna High School, the Michigan State University, and the University of Texas at Austin drumlines, and in 2024, served as the Percussion Director of the Tarpon Springs Leadership Conservatory for the Arts.
Dan is also passionate about studying Afro-Caribbean percussion genres from Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. He has studied Afro-Cuban percussion in Havana and Matanzas, Cuba, with renowned musicians Octavio Rodríguez Rivera, Miguel Bernal, Michel Aldalma, Miguelito León, and members of the Latin Grammy Award-winning Los Muñequitos de Matanzas. He has also performed with the Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba group Tambores del Pueblo and regularly participates in Afro-Venezuelan Tambor celebrations with San Juan USA in New York and Miami.
Dan has earned degrees from the University of Texas at Austin (Doctor of Musical Arts, D.M.A.), Michigan State University (Master of Music, M.M.), and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (Bachelor of Music Education, M.E.). His collegiate mentors include Dave Hall, Gwen Dease, Jon Weber, Kevin “Bujo” Jones, Ivan Trevino, Richard Huntley, and Tom Burrit. Dan is an endorsing education artist for Vic Firth sticks and mallets and Zildjian cymbals and a member of the Black Swamp Percussion Educator Network.
Dan began teaching in 2014 and joined Note-worthy Experiences in July 2026.
