The Boise Baroque Orchestra has named Boise State University alum Daniel Wiley as its interim Artistic Director. In August 2025, Wiley returned to Idaho to conduct the orchestra for itssummer music festival.
That concert series was just the latest in a string of successes for Wiley. In April 2024, hereached 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. The Cincinnati Business Courier, in its review of the concert, wrote that “Wiley took over Langrée’s program seamlessly and intelligently and brought out the best in the orchestra’s musicians.”
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 (North Carolina), Anderson Symphony (Indiana), and West Valley Symphony (Arizona). His talents are in demand nationwide, calling him to conducting opportunities from Fairbanks to Jacksonville and many cities 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 had this opportunity thanks to the connections he forged at Boise State with Professor Emeritus Marcellus Brown and Professor Craig Purdy.“
[Daniel Wiley] 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 was glad togive him those opportunities. Marcellus and Craig really took him under their wings.
Boise State also helped Wiley forge a connection with Robert Franz, the late Artistic Director of the Boise Baroque Orchestra until Franz’s untimely death in September 2025.
Wiley has made incredible achievements since graduating from Boise State, but stardom has not pulled him away from his interests in music education. Even as he holds multiple posts atprestigious orchestras across the country, he donates his time working with young musicians atevery level. That includes a digital concert series launched in 2020 that has 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 are the core of his artistic philosophy. “The purpose of music education is not only to create professional musicians,” he said. “We teach music because it also teaches us humanity.” True to that ideal and to Robert Franz’s legacy, Wiley will lead the student music institute here in Boise this summer.
Daniel Wiley will conduct the Boise Baroque Orchestra’s 2026 summer music festival scheduled for select Saturdays and Sundays in August. We look forward to announcing more details about the festival in coming weeks.
