Dana Woolard, M.M.

Dana Woolard serves as an instructor of cello. An active performer, instructor, adjudicator and clinician in the area, she has performed with the Kansas City Lyric Opera, many of the area’s symphony orchestras and William Jewell ensembles such as Liberty Symphony Orchestra, opera productions and Cardinalis. Internationally, she has performed with baroque vocal and instrumental ensembles and faculty members of the Chigiana Festival in Italy and in Switzerland with the Sessioni per la Musica based in Siena. She currently serves as principal cellist of the St. Joseph Symphony Orchestra. As principal cellist of the Inspiration Point Opera Festival, she performed at the opening of the Walton Arts Center and recorded for NPR. While at Inspiration Point, she performed and taught with members of the Brevard Festival at the Inspiration Point Chamber Festival.

Woolard enjoys many styles of music, performing in more than 30 professional musical productions at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Music Hall, Missouri Rep Theater, Starlight Theater and the Missouri Theater Heritage. She has performed with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Manheim Steamroller, Sir Rod Stewart, Michael Buble, Peter Gabriel, Disturbed, Evanescence, Lindsey Stirling, Kansas City’s New Ear Ensemble, Gamelan Genta Kasturi and with more popular artists at Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center.

She has been a faculty member of Avila University, Graceland University and Illinois Wesleyan University Chamber and Cello Festivals, Heartland Chamber and Opus 76 Quartet Young Artist Chamber Festivals. She has adjudicated Missouri All-State Orchestra auditions and coached cello sectionals at MOASTA conferences. In 2018, she was honored with the Missouri American String Teacher Collegiate Educator Award, and the 2024 Studio Teacher of the Year Award.