Composer Dan Lis fuses rock and contemporary concert music to create dynamic, rhythmically-driven works for the full range of performers and electroacoustic media.  His three albums Soul Refuge, Exercise Music, and Fraternity with all those good and beautiful things are available on all major digital music platforms.  He released his fourth album, Searching For Now, in February 2019.  A committed educator, his blog Composer’s Toolbox focuses on technical, technological, and aesthetic issues relevant to today’s emerging composers.

His piece Bleak Friday was featured at the University of Nebraska at Kearney New Music Festival XVI.  His piece nous for SATB choir was premiered by the Princeton Singers at the 2016 Lehigh University Choral Composers Forum.   His debut album Soul Refuge was featured in the 2014 Hartford New Music Festival.  Recent commissions include new works for 016 New Music Ensemble, Alturas Duo, Greater Hartford Youth Wind Ensemble, Northern Connecticut Community String Orchestra, soprano Christi McLain, and guitarist Nick Cutroneo, among others.

A 2016 and 2017 Morton Gould Young Composer Award Finalist, other recognition includes the Burton Family Scholarship in Composition, Richard Kountz Trust Scholarship in Composition, Junior Regent award, Hartt Music Theory Department Award, and Alpha Chi National Honors Society.  On the faculty of Northern Connecticut Community Music School from 2012-2015, he served as director of the rock, pop, and classical fusion ensemble Sound and Silence; and taught composition, theory, and guitar.

A summa cum laude graduate of The Hartt School, he studied composition with Dr. David Macbride, Dr. Robert Carl, Ken Steen, and Dr. Tawnie Olson, and jazz guitar with Rich Goldstein; his works were selected for masterclass coachings with visiting composers William Bolcom, Jessica Meyer, Paula Matthusen, and David Maslanka.  He completed a Master of Music in Composition degree, Pi Kappa Lambda, at The Hartt School, studying with Dr. Larry Alan Smith, Ken Steen, Dr. Gilda Lyons, and Dr. Robert Carl. 

He is published by DWL Publishing.  For more information please visit composerstoolbox.com.