Dan K. Kurland is an American conductor and pianist on the full-time staff of the Wiener Staatsoper where he serves as the inaugural music coordinator of the NEST (NEue STaatsoper), the State Opera's newly-opened performance venue.

His 2025/26 season is excitingly filled with debuts and premieres, notably a European tour as orchestral pianist with the Wiener Philharmoniker, serving as music director and conductor for the NEST's STRAUSS 2225 ballet production (featuring three world premieres by Annamaria Kowalsky, Gity Razaz, and Claire M. Singer), conductor for MUSKETIERE! (a youth opera in co-production with the Salzburger Festspiele Young Singers Project), as well as chamber music concerts featuring both orchestral and vocal repertoire.  

In addition to performances with conductors Franz Welser-Möst, Semyon Bychkov, Kevin John Edusei, and Thomas Sanderling, he has also assisted Philippe Jordan, Christian Curnyn, José Miguel Esandi, Michael Wendeberg and especially Michael Hofstetter, with whom he worked closely on Oper Halle and the Händelfestspielorchester's DVD recording of Brockes Passion (Naxos, 2024).

He has appeared in concert throughout New York (Steinway Hall, The DiMenna Center, The Guggenheim Museum, Caramoor, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and David Rubinstein Atrium) the United States (Aspen Music Festival and School), Germany (Dortmunder Philharmoniker, Halle Händel-Haus, Staatskapelle Halle and Philharmonische Orchester Hagen, Emil Schumacher Museum), Austria (Musikverein, AlpenKammerMusik), England (BBC Proms (Royal Albert Hall), Wigmore Hall), France (extensive concert tours throughout Nouvelle-Aquitaine), and Switzerland (Lucerne Festival).

Previous engagements include those as Studienleiter (head of music) at Oper Halle where he oversaw and advised musical preparation of nearly 20 new productions and especially prepared the complete casts of Der Rosenkavalier, La bohème, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Rigoletto, Manru, Faust, and Les contes d'Hoffmann.  He was founding music director of the Nachtcafé series and also served as lead advisor on the English-language texts for Adam, a world-premiere musical that premiered to great acclaim in June 2025.  His first position in Germany was as Solorepetitor at Theater Hagen, highlights of which included collaborations with then-Intendant Francis Hüsers on new productions of canonical works L'Elisir d'amore, A Midsummer Night's Dream (Shakespeare's play) and Winterreise as well as the world-premiere of Molly Bloom (after James Joyce's Ulysses).  Mr Kurland began his European career at the age of 21 as a faculty member of the Franco-American Vocal Academy (Périgueux, France) with repertoire focused solely on French opera and mélodie. American summer festival appearances have included Wolf Trap Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, and Music Academy of the West.

His on-stage partners have included soprano Julia Bullock, mezzo-sopranos Amanda Lynn Bottoms and Kate Lindsey, tenors Miles Mykkanen and Spencer Lang, baritones Stephen Lancaster and Randall Scarlata, violinists Francisco García Fullana, Eric Silberger and Charles Yang, pianist Jonathan Feldman, cellist Julian Schwarz, the string quintet SYBARITE5, and actors Shalita Grant, Ernestine Jackson, Michael Kostroff.  At the invitation of director Stephen Wadsworth and Manhattan Theatre Company he joined the Broadway revival production of Master Class (Manny Weinstock, u/s) with Tyne Daly staring as Maria Callas.  This work with Ms Daly fostered future collaborations together with the renowned EMMY and TONY Award-Winning actress including a special performance for the opening of FOCUS on The Arts.  

He is also a published writer whose articles have appeared in Opera News (2021), Singing: The Timeless Muse (2018), PLAYBILL Lincoln Center's program notes (2014) and numerous pieces in The Juilliard Journal and The Chicago Tribune.  He has been a guest coach and clinician at Chicago Summer Opera as well as a member of the faculty at both AlpenKammerMusik (Austria) and The Martina Arroyo Foundation’s Prelude to Performance program (New York City), and given master classes at Juilliard in Aiken (South Carolina) and Columbia University’s Opera Untapped.

Mr Kurland studied at The Juilliard School (DMA, MM) and The University of Texas at Austin (BM, honors). He was born in Chicago and in his leisure time he enjoys hosting dinner parties inspired by Ina Garten, running, and surveying gin and French wines.