Retiring 32-year music professor honored

Cal Lutheran bestows teaching award, emeritus status

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Daniel Geeting has directed and performed in hundreds of concerts on campus.

Photo: Brian Stethem

(THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – May 6, 2016) Music professor Daniel Geeting is retiring after 32 years of service to California Lutheran University with the 2016 President’s Award for Teaching Excellence in hand. 

President Chris Kimball presented the award at Honors Convocation on April 26. The award was created in 1995 to recognize professors who are held in high esteem by their peers, students and the rest of the university community. A committee of past honorees selected him.

Geeting, a Canoga Park resident who has also been awarded the status of emeritus faculty member, joined the faculty in 1984. He teaches music history, music appreciation, saxophone, clarinet and honors classes. He has shared his love of music with non-music majors in his popular Music and Culture course. He has served as the First Year Experience director and advised up to 30 freshmen a year.

“He is not only funny and makes the history come to life, but he also knows so much about the material,” one student wrote. “Dr. Geeting keeps himself open to not only educational material but also life questions.”

He has served as conductor of the University Symphony and Wind Ensemble and director of instrumental music. He has directed and performed in hundreds of concerts on campus. Cultivating a vision of Cal Lutheran as a regional cultural center, he has helped bring outside performers and lecturers to campus as a perennial chair and member of the Artists & Speakers Committee.

Geeting has served the university in other leadership roles, including coordinator of the Creative Arts Division and chair of the Music Department and the Teaching and Learning Committee.

“He exemplifies the can-do ethos,” said Joan Griffin, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “He brings a profound work ethic and sense of personal responsibility to his work.”

An accomplished conductor, clarinetist and saxophonist, Geeting has recorded two CDs on the PROdigital label, played on movie and television soundtracks, and worked as a studio musician. 

He earned a bachelor’s degree in music from California State University, Fresno, a master’s degree in music from the University of Southern California and a doctorate in musical arts from the University of Oregon. He received an institute certificate from the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, and previously held professorships at Cornell College and the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.

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