About our Featured Performer 

Dan Frantz founded the Greeley Chamber Orchestra in 1981 and has served as the orchestra’s conductor since that time. Prior to moving to Greeley, Mr. Frantz performed trumpet in the Brico Symphony and other groups in the Denver area. He came to Greeley in 1975 to attend the University of Northern Colorado’s School of Nursing, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in 1979. During his undergraduate years he studied trumpet with William Pfund and Gene Aitken, and presented two performance recitals through the School of Music. Mr. Frantz was accepted as a student by the renowned conductor, Antonia Brico, in 1980, and studied conducting and music with her until her death in 1989. For more than 40 years, he has led the Greeley Chamber Orchestra and Greeley Chamber Choir in performances of a diverse listing of composers and types of music, championing the music of local composers and the less familiar works of baroque and classical masters. He has collaborated with a wide variety of local soloists and in 1993 conducted the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. He frequently serves as an adjudicator at various contests and competitions.

Mr. Frantz received his Master of Science degree in Psychiatric Nursing from the University of Colorado in 1985. He has taught in both the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine and the Graduate Program of the School of Nursing at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. He was the first man to be awarded the Florence Nightingale Award for Excellence in Nursing (1993) and was selected as Honored Alumni for Humanitarian Service from his alma mater, the University of Northern Colorado (1994). Frantz was honored for his Lifetime Contribution to the Arts in Greeley by ArtsAlive! in 2005 and again in 2023 by Greeley Arts Legacy.