Daniel A. Weitz (b. 2002) is a New York City-based musician — composer, performer, improviser — whose works can be described as contemplative, theatrical, and narrative-driven. Throughout his works can be found a particular interest in the relationship between chaos and order, how one contorts and folds into the other, as well as the reproduction of everyday sounds leveraged to sonify narratives of destruction, collapse, and rebirth.

His work infants of further life  is a sonic contemplation of the relationship that each of us has with our own childhood, with our own vulnerable, naked, uncertain, yet beautiful beginning; it captures the moments during which our suffering confronts us and forces us back into an original state. You May You May You explores the intimate relationships that we have with our own instruments — how, as they develop, our instruments become sanctuaries of our humanity in which we confer with ourselves; they become magical boxes which hold within them the secrets of our own personhood. This piece of music and theater imagines a bizarre manifestation of this relationship wherein the instrument itself has agency to respond. 

Daniel’s work has been performed by acclaimed ensembles such as The Rhythm Method, the Brazilian National Symphony (Orquestra Sinfônica do Teatro Nacional Cláudio Santoro), PinkNOISE, ensemble PHACE, TAK ensemble, W4RP trio, DECODA, and the New York Youth Symphony Jazz Ensemble. This summer, his music was featured in festivals and programs such the Brasilia Orchestral Summit and Lake George Summer Music Festival, and has previously been featured in festivals and programs such as New Music On the Point, Vienna Contemporary Composers Festival, and The New York Youth Symphony Composition Program.

In addition to being a recipient of Columbia University’s Charles S. Miller Award in music composition and the Richard & Brooke Kamin Rapaport Music Fellowship, Daniel has graduated cum Laude from Columbia College with a Bachelor of Arts in Music and Physics, where he has had the immense privilege to study under Zosha Di Castri, Georg Friedrich Haas, Marcos Balter, and Finola Merivale.

When he is not writing or performing, Daniel spends his time working with children as well as people across all spectrums of physical and intellectual disability. From his work in music composition, he hopes to use his connections to bring the joys of live music to children and to those typically alienated from it. Currently, he works as a Teaching Artist for the Harmony Program, teaching violin, cello, and general music classes.

as of May 2024