Nicolas Daniel

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 competitions in Europe. 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 a successful conductor, he has become an important ambassador for music and musicians in many different fields.

Nicholas has been heard on every continent, and has been a concerto soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, working under conductors such as Sakari Oramo, Sir Roger Norrington, Oliver Knussen, Richard Hickox, Jiří Bělohlávek, David Robertson, Sir Mark Elder and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. In addition to his extensive experience in baroque and 19th-century music, he is an important force in the creation and performance of new repertoire for oboe, and has premiered works by composers including Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Henri Dutilleux, Thea Musgrave, Nigel Osborne, John Tavener, James MacMillan and Sir Michael Tippett. In the Elliott Carter centenary year, Nicholas Daniel played this composer’s virtuosic Oboe Concerto with the Orquestra National de España, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the St Louis Symphony Orchestra. He is regularly invited to play in the Proms and such occasions have included several world premieres and contemporary pieces as well as more traditional repertoire such as Mozart.

He made his conducting debut at the Proms in 2004 with the Britten Sinfonia. As a conductor, Nicholas has worked with orchestras in the UK and in Europe, most recently in Germany, Poland, Sweden and Finland; as Associate Artistic Director of the Britten Sinfonia he conducts and directs this award-winning orchestra regularly. 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 artists including the pianist Julius Drake and the Maggini and Lindsay string quartets. He has also worked with artists including Mark Padmore and Imogen Cooper. His duo with Julius Drake was described in “The Independent” as ‘vital, thoughtful and confirmed in musical integrity of the highest order.’ He has made frequent appearances at the Aldeburgh Festival and plays regularly at London’s Wigmore Hall. Nicholas is a regular visitor to the major international chamber music festivals, such as Kuhmo, Cork and Delft.
He is oboist to the California-based chamber ensemble Camerata Pacifica and is Artistic Director of the Leicester International Festival. He teaches in the UK and in Germany, where is he Professor of Oboe at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik, Trossingen.