About Dani

Singer, songwriter, teacher, and choir director born in Guatemala. Dani Toralla began her singing studies at the age of 8 with teachers such as Angélica Rosa, Miguel Ángel Duarte and Claudia Samayoa. When she was 16, she was part of "Dani & Alan Duo” and lead singer of the pop band "Km 205" in Quetzaltenango. In 2015 she went to the Guatemala’s National Conservatory of Music "Germán Alcántara" for 5 years, where she began studies of lyrical singing. In addition, she reinforced this discipline with Professor Bárbara Bickford and became part of the choir of the Guatemalan Opera Company “Querido Arte”, founded by the tenor Mario Chang and the soprano María José Morales. In the same year, she began studying at Galileo University where she earned a Bachelor’s in Music in 2020.

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She started studying Jazz Vocal improvisation, with professor Rosse Aguilar from 2018 to 2022. It was in the rhythms of jazz and bossa nova is where Dani found her heart beating faster, so she was co-founder and the singer of the “Scat-cat Jazz” combo, in which musicians considered as exponents of the Guatemalan jazz scene participated. She worked as Director of the Choir of the Engineers Association of Guatemala and as Italian Professor for classical singing students at the National Conservatory of Music "Germán Alcántara" in the same period. Her teaching experience with private students and in music academies led her to become a faculty member of the College of Music at the Da Vinci University of Guatemala.​

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In 2024 she got a Master’s Degree in Jazz Voice at the University of North Texas, where she also worked as a Teaching Assistant. She is currently teaching at the University of Texas at Arlington and Dallas College as an adjunct professor. 

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Besides being a passionate educator, Dani is a performer first. She is actively performing in the Dallas - Fort Worth Area in Texas with her Dani Toralla Quartet. Dani is also part of "Afina-Dos," a duo project with Houston pianist Tomás Jonsson. They perform in the DFW Metroplex but have also presented the project internationally, like this past March in Guatemala for the Jazz Festival. Dani was recently given the Guatemalan Artist of the Year Award, one of the biggest musical achievements in her country.