Biography:
Daniel Zlatkin's music has been described as "fascinating" and "galvanizing" by the Boston Globe. Influenced by expressionism, minimalism, and psychology, he seeks to create intense meditative spaces. His primary musical guide is the voice.
His music has been featured by institutions including the Tanglewood Music Center, Moody Center for the Arts (Houston), Château de Fontainebleau, National Sawdust (Brooklyn), Midwest Composers Symposium, Fisher Center for the Performing Arts (Hudson Valley), Unerhörte Musik (Berlin), the National Flute Association, and the Sprengel Museum (Hannover).
Some ensembles he has collaborated with include the Da Capo Chamber Players, Ensemble du Bout du Monde, The Orchestra Now, New Fromm Players, The Brass Project, Vanguard Reed Quintet, Nunc, and the Lake Forest Civic Orchestra.
Daniel grew up in Westport, Connecticut and holds degrees from Bard College (BM, BA '16) and the University of Michigan (MM '18). He currently resides in Houston, Texas, where he is a doctoral candidate at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music.
Current projects include a new vocal work for Tanglewood's 2024 season and a silent film score.
Artist Statement:
As a musician and a thinker, I care a great deal about earnestness and authenticity. I enjoy music which is unafraid to be different from expectation or convention, even provocatively so. I am interested in how the mediums of music and psychology intertwine. I enjoy the artistic approaches of both expressionism and minimalism, and I often think about ways these approaches may be combined or reconciled.
When I compose, I am deeply aware of the purpose of what I am creating. I write much music that is personal and private. But I also care about creating music which serves a role within the broader community. I am interested in how music stimulates critical thinking and genuine humanist values, in particular among the young. I believe this is especially important now, due to the turbulent nature of our time.
My music finds its origin in the voice, from within. I think of the voice as the most reliable guide towards what is musically natural, comfortable, and idiomatic. To me, the voice is music's most organic element.
I imagine music as a space separate from the world we live in, a meditative place that I can create.
