Alum

Daniel Cantor

Associate Professor
Affiliated Departments
Songwriting
Faculty Bio E-Mail
dcantor@berklee.edu
Telephone
617-747-6235
Personal Websites
Dan Cantor's studio website

For media inquiries, please contact Media Relations

Career Highlights
  • Owner/producer, Notable Productions (Neve-based studio)
  • Engineer/producer clients include Aerosmith, Thomas Mapfumo and the Blacks Unlimited, Tracy Bonham, KRS-One, and K'Naan
  • Other clients include Ray Kurzweil, Al Gore, ART, Warner Brothers, Island Records, Columbia Records, IBM, Microsoft, NPR, MTV, and Nomadic Wax Records 
  • Writer/drummer of Hummer (Accurate Records), which toured the U.S. and opened for Traffic
  • Member of Jim's Big Ego, which toured the U.S. and U.K., sung the National Anthem live at Fenway Park, appeared on NPR with Liane Hansen Weekend Edition Sunday, and performed recently with MC Frontalot at the 2011 Boston Anime Festival
  • Live performances with Ray Kurzweil, David Wilcox, Liz Carlisle, Beth Amsel, Laurie Geltman, Ron Murphy, John Baboian,  Anthony Grant, Manisha Shahane, Lance Martin's Flute and Friends, Atlas Soul, Laurie Sargent, One Thin Dime, Twelfth Baptist Gospel Horn and Choir, Viper House, Feast or Famine, Matt Jenson, and Gato Malo
  • Recorded instrumental performances with Comrade Fatso, Outspoken, Poetic Pilgrimage, Mohammed Yayha, Robert Gillies, African Underground All-Stars (feat. Chosan, Optimus & Iyeoka), BMG44 and other African Underground artists, Aerosmith's Stephen Tyler and Joe Perry, Brandon Patton, Abass Abass, Skavoovie and the Epitones, Brahim Fribgane, Thaddeus Hogarth, Little Joe Cook, Cyril Lance, Closet Fish, Rick Berlin, John Lockwood, Chris Neville, Russ Gershon, OMZO, Casper and House of David w/ Leroy Horsemouth Wallace of Burning Spear
  • Private lessons with Alan Dawson
  • Member of AES
Awards
  • ASCAP Award–winning songwriter
Education
  • B.A., Middlebury College
  • Alumnus of University of Colorado
  • Alumnus of Berklee College of Music and Drummer's Collective
In Their Own Words

"Although I came out of the MP&E Department many years ago and was a drum performance major before that, ultimately I believe the song is the core of everything. It's the beginning and end of all communication. Even if you're improvising, you're really just making a song extemporaneously. My focus in teaching technology within the Songwriting Department is trying to connect the technology to the emotion of the song."

"I've been privileged to work with talented musicians from all over the world whose approaches and concept of what a song is varies massively. But whether your inspiration is Miles, Lennon, Mos Def, or a tribal ritual, the source material comes back to the communication of the song."

"I love working with all kinds of technology and all kinds of instruments. New engineers, producers, songwriters are too easily enamored with thinking one tool is superior to another. What's more important is finding how each tool can be valuable in your bag of tricks. It matters not what technology you use or whether you use technology at all. All that matters is that you arrive at a recording that has the sonic and emotional impact that enhances the song."

"We are all privileged to be making recordings at a point in history when the technology is so portable, so accessible, and so able to cross languages and borders. I've been inspired by this and aim to inspire all of my students."

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