The Garden City Telegram
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Teacher an accomplished composer
Published 3/3/2008 in News : Area coverage
By RACHEL DAVIS
rdavis@gctelegram.com
He transformed from a child who played the trombone because it looked easy to a composer of symphonies.
He's a high school band and choir teacher, a husband, a father of three and a humble musician.
Daniel Baldwin, 30, lives in Deerfield and commutes to his job in Satanta on a weekly basis. His wife, Misty, works for USD 457, and his children attend Garden City schools.
"It gets hectic," he said.
Despite the 50-minute commute to work, Baldwin said it's well worth it every time he steps into a classroom. He said he loves working with children and hopes his influence on his students is as powerful as his teachers' influence was on him.
As a youngster, Baldwin said he knew he wanted to play in the band, he just didn't know what instrument. His parents decided on the trombone, and he has been playing it ever since.
Baldwin said he stayed with it because of his teachers.
"I was blessed to have one great teacher right after the other," he said.
Dennis Kerr, Baldwin's high school band director, said he remembers a hard working kid who loved to play with music, rearranging compositions meant for other instruments so he could play it on trombone.
"Trombone is one of the most difficult instruments to play because you can't hit a button to get the right note," he said. "You have to hear the pitch and match it with the slide. He mastered the skill very well."
The newsletter
Baldwin grew up in Blackwell, Okla., and graduated from high school there, going on to Northwestern Oklahoma State University in Alva, Okla., where he met Michael Davidson, a trombone professor.
Baldwin said he pursued a degree in music education, which taught him the history of music, music theory and how to play every instrument well.
Baldwin said Davidson, who he met in his second year of college, taught him how to listen to music but his technical skills on trombone were no match when compared to the trombone player on the CD.
So he took a step back and tried his hand at composing once again. He failed.
"The piece was awful," Baldwin said.
But he kept trying and eventually e-mailed Eric Ewazen, theory instructor at Juilliard, his first compositions.
"He pored over my awful music and gave me advice on how to make it better," Baldwin said.
He said whenever Ewazen would travel near Oklahoma, he would meet the instructor for a writing lesson.
"I went to Wichita and Indiana, and after every lesson I knew I was improving," Baldwin said. "And then I just fell in love with writing, and it turned into a passion."
In 2002, he joined the Society of Composers and the group would send out newsletters to its members.
One newsletter caught his eye.
A bassoon instructor, Matthew Morris, out of Baylor University, requested someone write a piece of music for contrabassoon players. Baldwin decided to give it a try.
But there was a problem -- he knew nothing about the instrument.
So he called Nicolasa Kuster, the bassoon director for Wichita State University, and she gave him a lesson.
"Once I knew how to play it, I could write the music," Baldwin said.
He said when he completed 75 percent of the piece, he contacted Morris and Kuster, who listened to the piece and decided to perform it at WSU.
It was 2004 and Baldwin had his first taste of success. The composition went over so well, the musicians performed it at the University of Texas International Double Reed Conference in 2005 and it snowballed from there.
Baldwin's compositions have been played at universities, festivals, symphonies and in England and Australia.
And the beat goes on
Baldwin said when he writes, he wants his music to convey a message as if he's talking to the listener.
"The problem with some composers is they get in their own way," he said. "They don't think of the message or the emotion music evokes."
Baldwin said whenever he writes, he attempts to present some type of mood.
"Musicians that have played my work say they enjoy it because it's simplistic," he said.
No matter his success, Baldwin said, there's still one audience he has yet to play for -- his students.
Baldwin said his students have worked on other commission pieces but never his own. At least not yet.
Even though Baldwin said he enjoys composing, he still calls the classroom home.
"I love music, but I wanted to do something I would enjoy for 30 or 40 years, and that's teaching," he said. "I just really enjoy directing band and teaching the kids."
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