Oboe
Nicholas Daniel’s long and distinguished career began when, at the age of 18, he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition and went on to win further international competitions. At his debut at the BBC Proms in 1992 the Sunday Times described him 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.
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 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 and the Budapest Strings, under such conductors as Sir Roger Norrington, Oliver Knussen, Richard Hickox, Sakari Oramo, Tadaaki Otaka and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. Nicholas Daniel has been a guest artist with all the BBC orchestras. Since his debut at the Promenade Concerts, he has appeared in this series on many occasions, as soloist and as conductor of the Britten Sinfonia.
An active chamber musician, Nicholas is a founder member of the Haffner Wind Ensemble and the Britten Oboe Quartet and enjoys a long history of collaboration with the pianist Julius Drake and the Maggini, Lindsay and Vanbrugh string quartets. In 2008 he was appointed oboist to Camerata Pacifica, the Californian chamber music ensemble.
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, David Matthews and Tansy Davies 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; and with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra the world premiere of Thea Musgrave’s Helios at the St. Magnus Festival and, with the BBC Symphony, of her “Two’s Company”, with Dame Evelyn Glennie, at the 2007 BBC Proms. 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.
As a conductor, Nicholas has worked with orchestras in the UK and abroad, and is Associate Artistic Director of the Britten Sinfonia. He is also Artistic Director of the Leicester International Festival .
Nicholas Daniel’s future engagements in chamber music include concerts at international festivals, including the Aldeburgh and Delft Festivals, and at the Wigmore Hall. As concerto soloist, he is playing with orchestras including the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and with conductors such as Sir Mark Elder. As conductor, his work takes him as far afield as Poland and Norway.
Since 2004 Nicholas Daniel has been Professor at the Staatliche Musikhochschule in Trossingen, Germany. He plays Loree oboes in association with Crowthers of Canterbury.