Nicholas Daniel is a British oboist who has devoted himself to the modern and contemporary repertoires. Born on January 9, 1962, he began by singing in the choir of Salisbury Cathedral and studying at the Purcell School, before winning the BBC Young Musicians competition in 1980 at the age of eighteen. After a spell at the Royal Academy of Music in London and lessons with Anthony Pay and Hans Keller, he established his career on record and at the BBC Proms. In 1991, the Oboe Alone recital, published by the Swiss label Léman Records, highlighted his talent as an instrumentalist, which he then put to good use in the modern British repertoire with a series of recordings devoted to William Alwyn, for the Chandos label. In addition to his ongoing work with composers such as Britten, Vaughan Williams, Finzi, Horovitz, Morean, Berkeley and Bliss, Nicholas Daniel is involved in the creation of contemporary works, and also returns to classical scores for the oboe. Associated with pianist Julius Drake in the recital Saint-Saëns, Koechlin & Poulenc (1994), he took part, with William Bennett, James Campbell and Rachel Gough, in the collection French Chamber Music (1994). In chamber music, he collaborates with several string quartets, including The Lindsays, the Maggini Quartet, the Carducci Quartet and the Fantasy Quartet. In 1992, he helped found the Britten Sinfonia chamber orchestra, based in Cambridge. Professor at the Guildhall School for a decade, he then went on to teach oboe at Indiana University, the Royal College of Music in London and the Musikhochschule in Trossingen, Germany. Awarded The Queen's Medal for Music in 2011, Nicholas Daniel was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2020. Since 2021, he has conducted the Orion Orchestra. He continues to record and promote works, such as the chamber music of Madeleine Dring, alongside Adam Walker, Antonio Oyarzabal and Amy Harman in Complete Works for Oboe for Chandos in 2025.
