Danniel Ribeiro is a Brazilian composer from Bahia. Danniel’s recent work focuses on instrumental music—exploring the use of instruments by way of project-specific contextualized techniques, preparations, practical sculptural objects, amplification, and transduced electronics.

In Brazil, Danniel studied with Paulo Costa Lima and Wellington Gomes, composers who continued the cultural resistance of the Grupo de Compositores da Bahia (Group of Composers of Bahia). In 2012, 2014 and 2016, he was awarded the National Prize for Classical Composition from the National Foundation of the Arts of Brazil (FUNARTE). Additionally, he has been awarded research grants in Brazil and Canada, contributing to research projects in composition, music theory and analysis. 

A recent development in Danniel's work is to explore/observe how different instrumental traditions could dialogue with each other. This compositional space could be claimed by the use of different orchestral instruments (in the Western concert music tradition) informing each other; the found-object/instrumental preparation trend in New Music informing the design of instrumental gestures; or, and perhaps more challenging, how "instruments" from different cultural backgrounds or artistic contexts could dialogue and blend in the form of particular ways of producing sound.

Danniel was a composition fellow at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (CAN), Domaine Forget (CAN), Festival Musica (FRA), New Music on the Point (USA), DePaul University Residency for New Music (USA), among other festivals and institutions. Additionally, his works have been performed at the Festival Empreintes (FRA), Festival de Morelia (MEX), Sala São Paulo (BRA), and the Biennial for Brazilian Contemporary Music (BRA). Danniel has worked with ensembles such as L’Instant Donné, JACK Quartet, RAGE Thormbones, Dal Niente, Abstrai, Eco and Paramirabo. He has had private lessons with Chaya Czernowin, Franck Bedrossian, Clara Iannotta, Philippe Hurel, Malin Bång, Mark Andre, Brian Ferneyhough, and Du Yun. 

Danniel completed his Master’s degree in composition (M.Mus.) at McGill University in 2018, advised by Philippe Leroux. At McGill, Danniel also had music theory advising from Christopher Neidhöfer and Robert Hasegawa. 

Currently, Danniel is based in the SF Bay Area (California, USA) where he is a PhD candidate in music composition at UC Berkeley studying with Edmund Campion, Ken Ueno, Myra Melford, and Carmine-Emanuele Cella. 



 

 

 

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