About Daniel

Daniel Ondaro is a singing guitarist based in Denver, Colorado, whose one-man show has entertained audiences across the United States, Europe and the high seas.

Since 2007 · Cruise ships since 2016 · 1,034 songs · Live requests welcome

Daniel grew up in Colorado, in the foothills of the Rockies, and trained as a classical guitarist. His first professional music job came in 2007, teaching guitar lessons for the University of Colorado's Continuing Education department, a year before he graduated from CU in 2008. He holds a BA in Musicology and World Music from the University of Colorado, and his playing still carries that training — but what audiences notice first is the voice: clear, warm, and rooted in the singer-songwriters of the 60s and 70s he grew up on.

Since 2016, Daniel has been a featured cruise-ship performer — a decade of almost continuous cruise-ship contracts, from Carnival Cruise Line to Royal Caribbean — often performing seven nights a week — the job that turned a good repertoire into an 1,034-song one and taught him to read any room, singing in English and Portuguese, with Spanish-language favorites in the mix. In November 2026 he returns to sea as a featured performer aboard Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas, one of the world's largest cruise ships.

Between contracts, home is Colorado. Daniel plays solo throughout the Denver area and across the state — hotel rooftops, restaurants, weddings, senior living communities and private parties — taking requests and building every setlist around the people in front of him.

The earlier chapters

Colorado came first: from 2011 to 2013 Daniel fronted the pop/Latin group NuMundo, playing festivals in Colorado and Singapore. In 2013 he moved to Berlin, Germany, where he led the band The Shy Birds across Europe — the Berlin years behind his albums Summer Days (2015) and Rise (2016). The Brazilian thread started before Brazil itself: Daniel fell for Brazilian music while still in Colorado and began studying it — and Portuguese, the language the music pulled him toward — and only then traveled there, for a summer study-abroad program in 2008 (he went back in 2012). Around that came years of Brazilian guitar lessons, two trips to Brazil Camp in California, and playing in local Brazilian bands around Boulder. The bossa nova and samba from that world — sung in fluent Portuguese — remain a signature part of the show.

The songs of his own

Alongside the covers, Daniel is a songwriter with five releases, most recently Under The Gun (2020) — songs about mountain peaks and sandy beaches, and the people looking for a home in both. [Hear them → /music]

Planning an event, or just want live music done right? [Check availability → /contact]