ESSAYS

Ethical Artistry (4 part series)
Part I Projects, Finding the Balance, & Artistic Guilt
Part II Falling Short: Logistics, Programming, and Complex Moral Decisions
Part III Changing Our Approach to Avoid the Easy Way Out
Part IV Does Any of This Really Matter?  If So, What Steps Can I take?

Performers / Composers

Resonance

Daniel Temkin (b. 1986) is an award-winning classical composer with instrumental and vocal works notable for their rich color, visceral intensity, and subtle beauty.

Daniel’s orchestra pieces have been heard worldwide. Ocean’s Call for strings has been played in America, England, Indonesia, Australia, and by Orchestre national d’Ile-de-France at Philharmonie de Paris. Rising Moon was premiered at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre by MacArthur Fellow Bright Sheng and the Hong Kong Philharmonic, while Cataclysm was premiered in Russia’s Glinka Hall by Jeffery Meyer and the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic, and later played by Santtu-Matias Rouvali and the Indianapolis Symphony. Earlier pieces were also heard with the Nashville Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, and numerous festival and collegiate orchestras.

Daniel’s chamber works have been performed by PRISM Quartet, Aizuri Quartet, Garth Newel Piano Quartet, Mirror Visions Ensemble, NZTrio, and the Jokubaviciute-Kim Duo, as well as by respected soloists David Shifrin, Ida Kavafian, Francisco Fullana, Alexi Kenney, Nikki Chooi, Timothy Chooi, Emi Ferguson, Ashley Jackson, Xavier Foley, and Annie Jacobs-Perkins. Commissioned by institutions like Chamber Music Northwest, Music from Angel Fire, Astral Artists, and Austin Chamber Music Center, Daniel has also had performances at the Dresden Festival, Banff, Fontainebleau, Aspen, Yellow Barn, and Caramoor, as well as with many regional new music groups and festivals around the U.S.

Appearing on over fifteen commercial recordings as composer and percussionist, Daniel’s albums COLORS and Maksimal (Orchid Classics) feature all-star casts, and in a live album portrait of COLORS on NYC’s Crypt Sessions, critics lauded Temkin’s music in performances by members of CMS Lincoln Center, the MET Opera, New York Philharmonic, New York New Music Ensemble, and others. Daniel is also featured on pianist Qing Jiang’s Dreamed Landscapes (Albany) produced by Grammy-winner Judith Sherman, and the eponymous Kinetic (Bright Shiny Things) produced by Grammy-winner Brad Sayles which debuted as a Billboard #1 Contemporary Classical album.

Outside the concert hall, Daniel’s music has been heard on APM’s “Performance Today with Fred Child,” on PBS Philadelphia’s WHYY television, on Sirius XM’s portrait series “Living American,” and on national radio in Hong Kong and New Zealand. Daniel is also an active teacher, with past residencies and colloquium lectures at over twenty-five global universities and conservatories including Curtis, Rice, Manhattan School of Music, Duke, Cornell, Shanghai Normal University, Tianjin Juilliard, and Victoria University of Wellington.

Daniel’s accolades include the Marilyn K. Glick Prize, two BMI awards, a Presser Foundation award, and grants from Aaron Copland Fund, Amphion Foundation, Alice M. Ditson Fund, New Music USA, and American Composers Forum. He also received honorable mention in the American Viola Society’s Gardner Competition, and as MTNA’s Distinguished Composer of the Year.

Serving the larger new music field, Daniel is an active mentor of young composers, and a panelist for various awards and residency programs. He has helped premiere and record several dozen works around the U.S., curating concerts concerts with the Melos Music collective, USC’s Thornton EDGE, and his own project-based series DTM Concerts.

Daniel earned a Bachelor’s in percussion at Rutgers University, simultaneously completing graduate coursework in music theory and aesthetics at Princeton and the Rutgers Philosophy department. He then moved towards composition, earning a Master’s at New England Conservatory, an Artist Diploma at Curtis, and a Doctorate at the University of Southern California. Daniel taught at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania from 2017-2025 where he held the Samuel L. Williams endowed chair in Music.