Daniel Wiley (BA, music education, 2013) is a commanding presence on the podium, demonstrating all the hallmarks of an exceptional orchestral conductor. In August 2025, the Boise State alum returned to Idaho to conduct the Boise Baroque Orchestra, leading local musicians—including some of his former teachers—in a series of four concerts.
That concert series was just the latest in a string of successes for Wiley. In April 2024, he reached a milestone in his orchestral conducting career when the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra called him as a last-minute replacement for Music Director Louis Langrée.
“I had 40 minutes’ notice before the dress rehearsal,” Wiley said. “By the time we finished, we got the message that [Langrée] was not going to make the concert.”
With only one rehearsal under his belt, Wiley made his subscription concert debut with the Cincinnati Symphony that night. “[Wiley] took over Langrée’s program seamlessly and intelligently, and brought out the best in the orchestra’s musicians,” wrote the Cincinnati Business Courier in their review of the concert.
Today, Wiley boasts an impressive resume as a rising star in the orchestral conducting world. He holds assistant conductor positions at major orchestras in Cincinnati and Kansas City and is music director of the Salisbury Symphony in North Carolina. His talents are in demand nationwide, calling him to conducting opportunities from Fairbanks to Jacksonville and everywhere in between.
Wiley, who grew up in Riverside, California, can trace those accolades back to his education at Boise State. As a student, he played clarinet in the Blue Thunder Marching Band and Boise State Symphony Orchestra, studied music education and started practicing orchestral conducting.
“The first time I stepped in front of that group, I was definitely nervous,” he said of conducting the Boise State Symphony Orchestra in a 2010 holiday concert. “It’s rare for an undergraduate to have the privilege of leading a university ensemble.”
Wiley got this opportunity thanks to the connections he forged at Boise State with Professor Emeritus Marcellus Brown and Professor Craig Purdy.
“Dan was not shy about pursuing opportunities,” said Professor Leslie Moreau, who taught Wiley as a clarinet student during his time at Boise State. “And the faculty were glad to give them to him. Craig and Marcellus really took him under their wings.”
Boise State also helped forge a connection with the late Robert Franz, artistic director of the Boise Baroque Orchestra, who died in September 2025. Franz and Brown played an important role in Wiley’s graduate school applications, coaching him through the process and preparing him for auditions.
Wiley has achieved an incredible amount since graduating from Boise State, but stardom has not called him away from his music education background. Even as he holds multiple posts at prestigious orchestras across the nation, he donates his time and works with young musicians at every level. That includes a digital concert series launched in 2020 that’s reached over 200,000 students and one-on-one coaching with drum majors in the Blue Thunder Marching Band.
For Wiley, educational opportunities are not a distraction, but the core of his artistic philosophy.
“The purpose of music education is not to create professional musicians,” he said. “We teach music because it teaches us humanity.”
Scholarship Support
Scholarships supported Wiley when he was a student at Boise State, including the Blue Thunder Marching Band Scholarship, the Bowen and Harf Music Scholarships and the Jim Hopper Clarinet Scholarship.