Daniel Knaggs
Recent performers of his work include the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vancouver Chamber Choir (Canada), Ars Nova (Brazil), Le Madrigal de Lille (France), Ensemble à Contre Voix (Canada), the Polish Chamber Choir (Poland), the Crakow Singers (Poland), Jauna Muzika (Lithuania), Fusion Vocal Ensemble (Australia), Polyphonic Voices (Australia), Pacific Lutheran University Choir of the West, Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, Coenobium Vocale and IPiccoli Musici (Italy), and the choirs of the Tokyo Cantat Festival (Japan). Alongside his compositional projects, Knaggs’s conducting schedule has recently taken him to Bulgaria, to conduct the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra in the premiere of his new work The Fire Within, to Italy, to conduct the premiere of his new chamber opera Zita di Luccaat the 2023 Puccini Chamber Opera Festival in Lucca, and to Poland, to conduct the Polish premiere of his major work Dwa Zdroje (Two Streams) at the Musica Vera Festival in Torun. Heisnow Artistic Director of the new Poland-based professional choir, Ensemble Invocatio, which he founded in 2022. Knaggs completed his doctorate in music composition (2017) at the Shepherd School of Music (Rice University) and graduated in 2007 from the University of Michigan with bachelor’s degrees in voice performance and Spanish.
In 2022 alone, Daniel Knaggs’ music was performed in Singapore, Australia, Latvia, Poland, Estonia, Italy, England, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Portugal, the Czech Republic, and throughout the US. After living in Mexico, Nicaragua, and France, and having studied six foreign languages, he continues to explore the interplay between music and linguistics while maintaining an international outlook in his work.
Increasingly sought after as a composer, Knaggs has recently been commissioned by the 2023 Puccini Chamber Opera Festival, the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge, Voces8, Wells Cathedral Choir, Choir & Organ Magazine/The Choir of Royal Holloway, and the Yale Norfolk Summer Choral Festival.