Biography

Dr. Daniel Puccio is a Phoenix based composer/arranger, multi-instrumentalist and educator.  A musician comfortable in multiple genres, he has performed with such notable artists as the Temptations, the Four Tops, Chris Potter, Dave Holland, Jerry Lewis, Bernard Purdie, Jay and the Americans, The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, and The Doo Wop Project. Most recently, Dr. Puccio was a featured performer at the 2019 Amigos de Jazz festival in Santiago de Cuba. Additionally, Dr. Puccio has taken part in several shows at Phoenix Theatre, most notably performing on Tenor Banjo for 2017’s production of The Scottsboro Boys.

His compositions and arrangements have been performed across the Unites States by various collegiate and high school ensembles including the University of Michigan Jazz Ensemble, Mesa Community College Concert Band, and the Newberry College Jazz Ensemble, and The Moanin’ Frogs Saxophone Ensemble. His Jazz Mass (commissioned by the University of Michigan’s Lutheran Campus Ministry) premiered with the LOL All-Stars in 2007. Other commissions include Papa’s Farm for the West Texas A&M Dance Department Centennial, and Bone Portraits for the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. His compositions and arrangements for the world premiere of Charles L. Mee’s soot and spit were nominated for a 2013 AriZoni Theater Excellence Award for best original score, and his music for Liz Duffy Adam’s Dog Act has received a 2014 AriZoni nomination for the same category. soot and spit had its New York debut for the Our Voices Project as part of the New Ohio Theater’s summer festival in June 2017, and was awarded a New York Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Performance Art Work in 2018. Dr. Puccio is also currently the arranger, and a founding member of the Sweet and Low Horns, a horn section that performs and records regularly throughout the Phoenix area.

Dr. Puccio is currently a member of the music faculty at both Mesa and Chandler-Gilbert Community Colleges, and teaches privately at Desert Ridge Music Academy in Phoenix, AZ. He has previously served as the director of Sound and Recording for the Arizona State University School of Music, instructor of Woodwinds with Arizona State University’s Sun Devil Marching Band, and was the Director of the widely acclaimed ASU Dixie Devils.

He holds degrees in Improvisation, Music Education, and Saxophone Performance from SUNY Potsdam’s Crane School of Music, the University of Michigan, and Arizona State University.  

Dr. Puccio exclusively plays Deering Banjos, Shubb Capos, and Kazoobie Kazoos

Academic degrees

• D.M.A. in Saxophone, Arizona State University
• M.M. in Saxophone Performance, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• M.M. in Improvisation and Creative Studies, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• B.M. in Education,The Crane School of Music, SUNY at Potsdam
• B.M. in Saxophone Performance,The Crane School of Music, SUNY at Potsdam
  • Minor in Jazz Studies