Dan McCarthy is sought after as an expert and performer of historical instruments that are sadly and conspicuously absent from the field of Early Music in the United States. Dan is regularly featured playing viola d’amore with groups such as Washington Bach Consort, Clarion Music Society, and Bach Bethlehem. Recent and upcoming appearances on Tenor Viola include Bach Vespers in New York, Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Washington Bach Consort, Harmonia Stellarum Houston, and The Fooles -a New York based violin consort.
Dan employs the ‘Equal Feel’ approach to stringing his instruments as defined by Mimmo Peruffo, and used by the Aquila and Cordedrago brands of gut strings. He is the North American distributor for Cordedrago strings, based in Bologna. With his approach to stringing, Dan is able to play on more historically accurate setups using only plain gut strings with no metal winding.
Dan was a part of the first class of baroque violists ever accepted into the Historical Performance program at Juilliard. He has served as section violist with the Trinity Wall Street Baroque Orchestra, concertmaster of the Austin Baroque Orchestra, and tenor gambist with Parthenia. He has also toured extensively throughout North America, East Asia, and Europe with artists and groups such as Jordi Savall, Masaaki Suzuki, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, and American Bach Soloists. Here on the east coast he plays with Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity, Washington Bach Consort, New York State Baroque, Artek, REBEL, Clarion Music Society, Early Music New York, Teatro Nuovo, Academy of Sacred Drama, Brandywine Baroque, and Tempesta Di Mare.