Festival Artist Daniel Kelly, a native of Charleston, SC, is associate professor of trumpet at Texas A&M University-Commerce. He joined the A&M-Commerce faculty in the fall of 2010 after serving on the faculty of Indiana State University and the University of Southern Mississippi.

Dr. Kelly is a member of the Dallas Winds (formerly the Dallas Wind Symphony) and has performed with the Plano Symphony, Northeast Texas Symphony, Mobile Symphony and Opera Orchestras, Gulf Coast Symphony, Mississippi Symphony, Meridian Symphony, Sinfonia Gulf Coast, Terre Haute Symphony and Brass Quintet, Philharmonia à Vent, Columbus Brass, The Prairie Ensemble, Champaign-Urbana (IL) Symphony and Brass Quintet, Baroque Artists of Champaign-Urbana (BACH), Peoria Bach Festival Orchestra and the Festival of Trumpets at International Trumpet Guild conferences in New York and Evansville, IN. Dr. Kelly was a featured presenter at the 2006 ITG Conference in Glassboro (NJ) and has presented solo recitals throughout the South and the Midwest. He is also a founding member of The Ambassador Brass Quintet, which has presented concerts and workshops in the US, Thailand, Vietnam and China. More recently Dr. Kelly has presented recitals and master classes at the Campina Grande International Music Festival (Brazil) and Shenzen Conservatory (China). He is principal trumpet of the Classical Music Festival in Eisenstadt, Austria, and Colorado MahlerFest in Boulder.

Dr. Kelly holds a BS in trumpet performance from Austin Peay State University (TN) and a MM and DMA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been designated a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM) by the Music Teachers National Association and an artist/clinician for Yamaha Corporation of America.