Daniel Ketter, born and raised in Kansas City, specializes in performance of contemporary and classical chamber music as cellist of American Wild Ensemble, Opus 76 String Quartet, Ensemble Alla Balena, Cellax Duo, and other groups nationally and internationally. He has appeared as a concerto soloist with Kansas City Civic Orchestra, Eastman Wind Orchestra, Youth Symphony of Kansas City, Westwood Ensemble, Springfield Symphony Orchestra, and Outburst Chamber Orchestra. 

Daniel Ketter is Co-Director and cellist of American Wild Ensemble, which celebrates the people and places that define American communities with new music. In 2018, American Wild Ensemble released a two-hour album of eleven original works on the ArtistShare label, Music in the American Wild, including an hour-long video album available on YouTube. With support from the National Endowment for the Arts, these works were commissioned and performed for a national tour of 25 performances in seven national parks celebrating the centennial of the National Park Service in 2016. AWE's second album, Duos and Trios, released on New Focus Recordings, was named a Top 10 Album of 2022 by Rochester City Magazine, who described the album as "a winning combination of accessible and adventurous" performed "with sensitivity and precision" and "the perfect album for those listeners wanting to dip their toes into experimental sounds." Since 2016, AWE has collaborated with ten different national parks and historic sites and commissioned and premiered over 35 new chamber music works for grant-funded projects celebrating the US National Park Service, 19th Amendment Centennial, Great Lakes Region, Frederick Law Olmstead Centennial, and programs promoting children’s literacy with support from National Endowment for the Arts, Washington’s National Park Fund, Chamber Music America, Mid- America Arts Alliance, The Paul R. Judy Center for Applied Research, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Missouri State University, Missouri Humanities Council, Missouri Arts Council, and New Music USA.

Daniel began his tenure as cellist of The Opus 76 String Quartet in 2020. Recognized as “Kansas City’s String Quartet,” Opus 76 are currently Artists-in-Residence at the Midwest Trust Center at Johnson County Community College, where they present a full season of live and digital performances. In 2023 the Quartet performed their debut recital in Carnegie Hall.

As an ardent supporter of contemporary music, in 2021, Daniel founded the annual Cello Teaching Repertoire Consortium, with the mission to supplement traditional cello student repertoire with the commission of new pedagogical concert works and etudes representing diverse musical styles and cultural backgrounds. This project has commissioned six new works for cello students supported by cello teachers across the country, featured in workshops and performed by students at the Eastman Cello Institute, and presented at American String Teachers Association's 2022 and 2024 national conferences.

Since 2018 Daniel has served as faculty at Missouri State University, where he teaches courses in cello, chamber music, and music theory. As a teacher, he continues to present annual summer classes as faculty for the Eastman Cello Institute and works with Opus 76 as Quartet-in-Residence faculty for Youth Symphony of Kansas City. In Springfield, Daniel coaches chamber music for the annual Missouri State University String Fling for high school and college students in the region.

In 2020, Daniel completed a Ph.D. in Music Theory at Eastman School of Music, and he has served as Co-Chair for Society for Music Theory’s Performance and Analysis Interest Group. His research interests include essential voices in Schenkerian theory and performance and analysis.

In 2017 Daniel completed his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Eastman School of Music. Daniel has a MM in cello performance and pedagogy from Peabody Conservatory and graduated with high distinction from both Eastman School of Music (BM ’10, Applied Music - Cello) and from University of Rochester (BA ’10, Mathematics). Daniel completed a MBA in 2024 at Missouri State University with a Certificate in Finance and is a member of Beta Gamma Sigma.

Daniel plays a cello made by H. C. Silvestre c. 1870 in Lyon, France.