Bio

Danny Lyons is a solo handbell artist and clinician who plays and conducts
clinics and handbell festivals regularly throughout the southeast.

In 2006 he was invited to play the closing concert for a music festival in
Serbia/Montenegro, and he also played several concerts in Paris on the same
tour. This past summer's events included playing and teaching as a member
of the "Dream Team Quartet" at the Solo and Ensemble Extravaganza at
Villanova University in Pennsylvania, teaching solo ringing and playing a solo
concert at the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers Area IV Festival
Conference in Jekyll Island, Georgia, and playing at the Music and Worship
Conference at Montreat, North Carolina.

This spring he will be traveling to Nassau, Bahamas to play in conjunction
with the Bahamas National Children's Chorus.

Danny is the founder and musical director of BellFest, Pensacola's community
handbell choir which plays 5 ½ octaves of bells and 5 ½ octaves of
handchimes. He is also the director of handbells at Christ Episcopal Church in
Pensacola.

Danny majored in piano and voice at Northwest Junior College in Senatobia, MS, Louisiana State
University and the University of Mississippi. He then began the study of piano technology with
Thomas A. Hames in Memphis, TN, followed by study at the Steinway Institute of Piano Technology
in NewYork and training at the Yamaha Piano Technology School in Los Angeles -- the famous
"Little Red Schoolhouse". Since then he has taught classes at statewide seminars, participated in
numerous training seminars for up-and-coming technicians, taught tuning techniques at the Baldwin
Piano Factory in Greenwood, MS, and is held in the highest esteem in the Greater Gulf Coast Area
for his abilities as a piano restoration expert and concert piano technician. In March of 2003 Danny
attended the PianoDisc school in Sacramento, CA, to complete training as a registered installer for
PianoDisc systems, and in March of 2007 Danny completed his third session of comprehensive
training at the Steinway Institute in the Steinway factory in New York City.

He is the Steinway piano technician and head of the piano technology department of Dollarhide
Music and Sound, specializing in tuning and rebuilding the Gulf Coast's finest pianos and
harpsichords, including antique restoration of such historical pianos as the Steinway in the
Mississippi Governor's Mansion and the 1850 square grand piano in the Oakleigh House in Mobile.
Danny is the area's concert tuner for both the Mobile and Pensacola Symphonies, The University of
West Florida, Pensacola Junior College, and numerous artist series throughout the area including the
prestigious "Music at Christ Church" series. In his 32 year career as a piano technician, he has
prepared pianos for the area concerts of numerous celebrities, including Ella Fitzgerald, Bob Hope,
Izsac Perlman, Harry Connick, Jr., Barry Manilow, Roger Williams, Peter Nero, Lou Rawls, Garrison
Keiler's "A Prairie Home Companion", and many others.

Mr. Lyons has also taught piano and voice, and served many years in church music, having been
Director of Music for several Mississippi and Florida churches, including First Christian Church in
Pensacola, Gulf Breeze Presbyterian Church in Gulf Breeze, Florida, Trinity Presbyterian Church in
Pensacola and he currently serves as director of handbells at Christ Episcopal Church, Pensacola .
Danny is a choral composer having premiered several of his compositions with his various choirs,
and arranges many of his own solo handbell pieces. He is the founder and assistant director to Don
Allured of "BellFest", Pensacola's auditioned community handbell choir, which will celebrate its fifth
anniversary in September of 2008.

Danny began studying solo handbells 15 years ago through the writings and solo handbell music of
famed artist, Christine Anderson, with whom he corresponds regularly, and has studied with master
teacher, Don Allured, nationally recognized clinician, composer, conductor and retired handbell
instructor at Westminister Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey.

Mr. Lyons is a member of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers, the American Guild of
Organists, where he has served as Dean of the Chapter for two consecutive years, and has been a
member of the Piano Technicians Guild for almost three decades. In February of 2004 he was
selected to be the official piano technician for the "Isadore Bajic Memorial Piano Competition" which
is held in Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro, (former Yugoslavia) and he traveled there for a four
week period to completely restore a Steinway Concert Grand Piano that was to be used for the
competition. In 2006 he was invited back to Serbia as a solo handbell artist to perform the closing
concert for the music symposium which preceded the Isadore Bajic Memorial Piano Competition. One
that same tour he visited Paris, France and played several concerts there including The American
Church in Paris with Fred Gramman.

He performs on solo bells in church services, concerts all over the southeast, artist series,
weddings, funerals, and other special events, and conducts handbell workshops for choirs
throughout the area. His programs include a variety of musical numbers from classical and sacred to
Broadway and film, and he performs on his own three-octave set of Malmark handbells.
Danny lives in the Historic District in Pensacola with his golden retriever, Matthew, and has many
hobbies including hiking, biking, boating, swimming, reading, woodworking, and computers.
His main accompanist is pianist, Vicki Sweeney, a Pensacola piano instructor and long time friend.
He and Vicki have recorded two CD's of solo handbell selections, and a DVD of a live concert.