At his debut at the BBC Proms in 1992, the Sunday Times described Nicholas Daniel as one of the greatest exponents of the oboe in the world. Today one of the UK's most distinguished soloists as well as an increasingly successful conductor, he has become an important ambassador for music and musicians in many different fields.
Educated at Salisbury Cathedral School, the Purcell School for gifted young musicians and at the Royal Academy of Music, Nicholas Daniel studied with Irene Pragnell, George Caird, Janet Craxton and Celia Nicklin. At the age of 18, he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition, going on to win major prizes at several other competitions, including the International Double Reed Society competition in Graz, and the Munich International Oboe Competition.
Nicholas Daniel has been heard in recital on every continent, and has been a concerto soloist with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic, the City of Birmingham Symphony, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the St Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic, the Britten Sinfonia, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra, the Israel Sinfonietta, the Netherlands and Bavarian Radio Orchestras, the Orquestro Sinfonico di Rio, the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the Budapest Strings, the National Orchestra of Spain and all the BBC orchestras, under such conductors as Sir Roger Norrington, Oliver Knussen, Richard Hickox, Sakary Oramo, Tadaaki Otaka, Diego Masson, Edward Gardner, David Robertson, Jiri Belohlavek and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. He has appeared regularly at the BBC Promenade Concerts, where his concerts have included the world premiere of John Woolrich's oboe concerto and Thea Musgrave's Helios, a work written especially for him. He made his conducting debut at the Proms in 2004 in the chamber series with the Britten Sinfonia.
An active chamber musician, Nicholas Daniel is a founder member of the Haffner Wind Ensemble and the Britten Oboe Quartet and has enjoyed long and fruitful collaboration with pianist Julius Drake and the Magginii, Lindsay and Carducci string quartets. He was recently appointed oboist to the California-based chamber ensemble Camerata Pacifica.
Nicholas Daniel has been an important force in the creation and performance of new repertoire
for oboe. He has premiered works by composers including Henri Dutilleux, Sir Harrison
Birtwistle, Sir Michael Tippett, Nigel Osborne and John Woolrich. Composers such as Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, John Tavener, Oliver Knussen, Michael Berkeley and David Matthews have written pieces especially for him. With the English Chamber Orchestra, he gave the world premiere of the orchestral version of Britten's Temporal Suite at the 1994 Aldeburgh Festival; he gave the world premieres of Thea Musgrave's Helios at the St. Magnus Festival with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and of Two's Company at the Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. In the 2006/7 season, Nicholas Daniel premiered two works by John Tavener written for him: Kaleidoscopes, for oboe, string orchestra and percussion, and Music of the Sky, for oboe, tenor and piano.
and with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra the world premiere of Thea Musgrave's Helios at the St. Magnus Festival. In the 2006/7 season, Nicholas Daniel premieres two works by John Tavener written for him: Kaleidoscopes, for oboe, string orchestra and percussion, and Music of the Sky, for oboe, tenor and piano, Currently, Jonathan Harvey is writing a concerto for Nicholas Daniel and Thea Musgrave is writing a double concerto for oboe, percussion and orchestra for the BBC Proms, to be premiered in 2007 by Nicholas Daniel and Evelyn Glennie.
Conducting is now absorbing an increasing amount of Nicholas Daniel's time and he has conducted and directed a number of leading orchestras including the English
Chamber Orchestra, Bournemouth Sinfonietta, City of London Sinfonia, Britten Sinfonia,
Budapest Strings (Hungary), Camerata Roman and Jonkoping Sinfonietta (Sweden) and Kristiansand Chamber
Orchestra (Norway).
Nicholas Daniel was Artistic Director of the Osnabrück Chamber Music Days from 2001-2004. In 2002 he was appointed Associate Artistic Director of the Britten Sinfonia and is Artistic Director of the Leicester International Music Festival.
A committed teacher, Nicholas Daniel was appointed Professor of Oboe and Chamber Music at
London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama at age 23. He served as Professor of Oboe at the
Indiana University School of Music from 1997-99, and is now a Fellow of both the Guildhall
School and the Royal Academy of Music. He was appointed Prince Consort Professor at the
Royal College of Music, London from 1999-2002 and in 2004 took up the post of Professor at the
Trossingen Musikhochschule in Germany.
Mr. Daniel can be heard on more than 30 recordings for such labels as Virgin Classics, Chandos,
BMG Conifer, Leman Classics, Naxos and Harmonia Mundi USA. His most recent recording is with the Carducci Quartet: Joseph Horovitz's oboe quartet, on Carducci Classics.
As well as Mr Daniel's regular appearances with the award-winning Britten Sinfonia, as soloist, director and in chamber music, his future engagements include solo appearances in the BBC Proms, as well as chamber music engagements at venues including the Wigmore Hall. He also returns to several international festivals, including the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival in Finland and the Delft Chamber Music Festival in the Netherlands.
Mr Daniel plays Loree instruments supplied by Crowthers of Canterbury in association with Loree, Paris.
Link to Nicholas Daniel's own website: -
http://www.nicholasdaniel.com
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