Dan Chouinard

Back to Song Leaders Page

Community Sing Song Leader

Minnesota's Dan Chouinard (Sha-nard) is one of the very best song leaders, anywhere. Period. AND - he is hysterical! Don't miss singing with the piano, having a ball singing both chestnuts and popular songs you forgot you knew! All done with style and wit. Treat yourself and share an evening with a very, very funny and talented musician and song leader, Dan Chouinard. 

A Pianist, accordionist and storyteller, Dan plays, tours and records regularly with an ever-expanding roster of musicians and writers.

Dan regularly creates special programs which blend storytelling, interview and music, many of these for Minnesota Public Radio. Two recent shows, “Cafe Europa” (2005, 2008) and “Mambo Italiano” (2006) have been aired on Twin Cities public televison and broadcast statewide on MPR, as have his frequent radio collaborations with Ann Reed, Peter Ostroushko and Patricia Hampl.

When not working as a musician he travels the world by bicycle, with tent and accordion in tow, seeking out new repertoire and musicmaking opportunities.

He works occasionally on "A Prairie Home Companion" with Garrison Keillor, and served as rehearsal accompanist to Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin and Lindsay Lohan on the set of the Robert Altman-directed movie “A Prairie Home Companion.”

From the early 1990s until January 2007 he was assistant director of music at the Church of St. Joan of Arc in Minneapolis where he helped build the church’s reputation for musical quality and eclecticism. He continues as music advisor and co-producer of the SJA Concert Series.

In 1994 he created the acclaimed weekly radio series “The Singer’s Voice,” broadcast live Sunday nights from the Dakota Jazz Club, then in St. Paul, hosting song-laced conversation from the piano with a different singer each week, some 200 in the six years of the show’s tenure.

Dan grew up in a musical family, attended St. John’s University in Collegeville MN (1985) and spent four years as a teacher of French and Italian at the University of Minnesota

www.danchouinard.com