He is an oboist and conductor who started his life in music when he became a chorister at the Salisbury Cathedral School.
He joined the Purcell School for Gifted Young Musicians and followed that up with attending the Royal School of Music. Winning the BBC’s Young Musician of the Year when he was 18, he carried on in competition winning further first prizes at the Munich International Oboe Competition and the International Double Reed Society Competition.
From the time of leaving his education he has been much in demand as a soloist with many British orchestras, including every BBC orchestra, and has also been a recitalist with many international orchestras that include the Seoul Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Budapest Strings and the European Chamber Orchestra. Appearing at the Proms three years in a row, one of them was a world premiere performance of the “Oboe Concerto” by John Woolrich and the other was performing Helios which was a work written specifically for him by Thea Musgrave.
In his work with chamber orchestras he regularly appears with the Lindsay and Maggini string quartets, is a founding member of the Haffner Wind Ensemble and has been in collaboration with the pianist Julius Drake since the 1980s.
Moving into the realms of directorship he has been an Artistic Director of the Britten Sinfonia, the Isle of Wight International Oboe Competition, the Leiceseter International Music Festival and the Osnabruck Chamber Music Days, and a Music Director of the Leicester Symphony Orchestra.
As a teacher he has been a Professor of Oboe at Indiana University, Prince Concert Professor and Fellow at the Royal College of Music, Professor at the Trossingen Musikhochschule and Professor of Oboe and Chamber Music and Fellow at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London
In 2011 he was awarded the Queen’s Medal for Music.
City of London Sinfonia recordings
William Alwyn
Autumn Legend for English Horn and String Orchestra
Chandos 9065 (CD: Alwyn: Lyra Angelica, Autumn Legend etc )
Conductor – Richard Hickox
English Horn – Nicholas Daniel
Nicholas Daniel & Julius Drake recordings
William Alwyn
Sonata for Oboe and Piano
Chandos 9197
Oboe – Nicholas Daniel
Piano – Julius Drake
Here he is performing “Methamorphoses after Ovid” by Benjamin Britten…
Sources:
- http://www.nicholasdaniel.com/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Daniel
- http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/artist_page.asp?name=daniel
- http://www.haffnerwind.com/biogs/ndaniel.htm