Daniel Kidane

Daniel Kidane’s music has been performed extensively across the UK and abroad as well as being broadcast on BBC Radio 3, described by the Financial Times as ʺquietly impressive“ and by The Times as ʺtautly constructed“ and ʺvibrantly imagined“.

Daniel Kidane began his musical education at the age of eight when he started playing the violin. He first received composition lessons at the Royal College of Music Junior Department and then went on to study privately in St Petersburg, receiving lessons in composition from Sergey Slonimsky. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) in Manchester under the tutelage of Gary Carpenter and David Horne. Currently, he is undertaking a doctoral degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, supervised by Julian Anderson.
Recent projects include the premiere of his orchestral work ʺZulu“ played by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. A new work for the CBSO Youth Orchestra, which is inspired by Grime music, a chamber work for the Cheltenham Festival which draws inspiration from Jungle music and a new type of vernacular, a song cycle commissioned by
Leeds Lieder and inspired by the poetry of Ben Okri, and a new piece entitled ʺDream Song“ for the baritone Roderick Williams and the Chineke! Orchestra, which was played at the reopening of the Queen Elizabeth Hall in April 2018.
This season, ʺDream Song“ receives its US premiere with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard. His piece ʺWoke“ was premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Last Night of the Proms in 2019.
Recent commissions for Michala Petri (recorder) and Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord) were released on CD and premiered in the UK at Wigmore Hall. Works for members of the London Symphony Orchestra, which have focused on multiculturalism, and an orchestral work for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, motivated by the eclectic musical nightlife in Manchester, also received critical acclaim.