Daniel Bensler began his musical studies on the piano at age 8 and soon determined that music would be one of his lifelong interests. He continued piano studies to the end of high school, completing his Western Board exams by age 15, and briefly contemplated becoming a pianist.
Though he had extensive experience accompanying others, it was while doing music studies at Columbia Bible Institute that he discovered the enjoyment of solo and choral singing for himself, as a member of the Columbia Chorale under Rudy Baerg and as a member of various folk music groups. At CBI, he began his voice studies with Rudy Baerg, as well as doing some conducting study.
He went on to do his music degree at the University of British Columbia, studying voice with Donald Brown and Choral Conducting with James Fankhauser. While at UBC, he gained extensive choral and solo experience, in the University Singers, a select 40-voice choir under James Fankhauser, and in the 12-voice University Chamber Singers under Courtland Hultberg. It was during this time as well that he sang for two seasons with the Vancouver Chamber Choir (in the tenor section with Ben Heppner), a 16-voice professional choir, under Jon Washburn, leaving the choir only in order to complete his degree requirements.
Other choral involvements included several seasons with the Vancouver Cantata Singers, again under James Fankhauser, the Vancouver Chamber Chorale (an adjunct to the Vancouver Chamber Choir), also under Jon Washburn, and Chrysalis, a vocal jazz group under James Fankhauser. It was during his student years that Mr. Bensler first directed a choir, leading Lyra, an 80-voice German male choir, and Concordia, a 30-voice German mixed choir, for several seasons.
Since moving to Calgary in 1981, Mr. Bensler gained valuable conducting experience as a band director in the public school system for a number of years as well as directing a number of different church choirs. He has been the director of the Corpus Christi Male Chorale from part way through their first season to the present.