A Seattle native, Dan Rainard is a musical reflection of his home city. Proud is he that he attended the same high school as Jimi Hendrix and Quincy Jones! A lifelong devotee of the guitar, he feels at home playing in many styles but was particularly drawn to study jazz for its ability to convey nuanced emotion through harmony. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in music from Central Washington University and after playing several years on board cruise ships he took a hiatus to earn his Master’s degree as a graduate assistant with Chuck Israels at Western Washington University. He returned to Seattle after playing on board for several more years and working on three world cruises, accompanying hundreds of guest entertainers including Mr. Show Business himself, Wayne Newton!

Since returning in 2012, he can be heard performing with such Seattle luminaries as Tim Kennedy, Birch Pereira, and Dave Peterson as well the orchestras of Seattle Repertory Theater (In The Heights, Shout Sister Shout) and Village Theater (Songs for a New World, Matilda, Hairspray, and more). He has studied with jazz legends Julian Lage, Russell Malone, Ulf Wakenius, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Tuck Andres and Earl Klugh. He has also made an independent study of the sound and technique of George Benson, Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell and John Scofield and amassed numerous personal transcriptions of their work which he hopes to publish one day. He is eager to help aspiring guitarists unlock the doors that have been opened to him by learning to read and interpret sheet music and understand and improvise music in all kinds of musical styles. Dan believes that the guitar has a home in so many musical genres, you don’t have to pick just one, but learning jazz will give you a framework to understand most other genres in depth.