Dani Howard

Dani Howard is a British composer and orchestrator who is quickly gaining international recognition with regular performances across Europe, the US and Asia. In June 2021 she received the premiere of her Trombone Concerto with acclaimed reviews “an instant classic… lush… riveting…” (Richard Morrison, The Times) – with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and soloist Peter Moore. The piece received a Royal Philharmonic Society Award in the Large-Scale composition category, and has since seen performances given by Ulster Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra & Gävle Sinfoniorkester.

2019 saw her debut with the London Symphony Orchestra (a new commission for Cheltenham Festival conducted by Elim Chan), BBC Symphony Orchestra and a return to the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic with a new commission for the opening of their 2019-20 season conducted by Vasily Petrenko. Her debut opera with ‘The Opera Story’ premiered in 2019 “a sophisticated and incredibly beautiful piece that surely places Howard amongst the best of contemporary British opera composers” (Bachtrack). In 2018 she received her Royal Albert Hall Debut with the RLPO performing “Argentum” – commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society and Classic FM. She has had her works performed by over forty orchestras world-wide, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, CBSO, Hallé, BBC Scottish SO, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Concert Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, NCPA Orchestra of China, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, European Union Chamber Orchestra, NYOGB among others.

Throughout 2020, she was commissioned by the Antoni Gaudí building Casa Batlló in Barcelona, to compose an hour of music inspired by the spaces throughout the building, which will act as the new audio-guide for their ’10D experience’ launched in May 2021. This project saw her record full symphony orchestra and percussion quartet at Teldex Studios, with members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony, and Deutsche Oper Berlin, conducted by Pablo Urbina.

Born and raised in Hong Kong, she graduated with first class honours from the Royal College of Music as a Rose Williams Scholar, studying under Jonathan Cole, and has since gone on to win competitions including the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize, 1st Prize in the ‘Breaking The Fourth Wall International Composition Competition’, ‘Emerging Artist’ winner in the Chamber Music OC International New Music Competition 2019, 3rd Prize in the International Antonin Dvorak Composition Competition (Prague) and 10th International Sun River Prize (China). She has been made a finalist for the Alba Rosa Vietor Composition Competition (Netherlands), International A. Rendano Composition Competition (Italy) and the British section of the ISCM World Music Days Festival (Slovenia) among others, and was a composition fellow at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music (California).

Biography taken from composer’s website.
Photo: Emma Fenton