specializes in klezmer and other Eastern European music, as well as new music based on folk and jazz. After graduating from the Manhattan School of Music, he co-founded the San Francisco-based new music ensemble Davka, which has toured extensively and released 5 CDs of original music, four on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. He created The Klez-X (formerly the SF Klezmer Experience) as the pit band for the musical Shlemiel the First at the American Conservatory Theater. The Klez-X has also performed widely and recorded 3 CDs including many new compositions and modernist settings of Yiddish poetry.  Daniel has also written silent film scores for live performance for the 1920 German Expressionist film The Golem, and for the 1925 Soviet comedy, Jewish Luck.

Davka has performed with the celebrated Eastern European women’s vocal group, Kitka. in 2007 the two ensembles collaborated in a filmed concert entitled Kitka and Davka in Concert – Old and New World Jewish Music. The program has been seen on PBS television stations around the US.

Daniel has extensive experience writing and performing in theatrical settings as well, having written two full-length musicals.  The latest one, a collaboration with choreographer/playwright Yehuda Hyman, David in Shadow and Light, was produced in 2008 at Theatre J in Washington DC. He has also performed in and written music for Opening to You, God’s Donkey, and Moonwatcher at Traveling Jewish Theater in SF, and The Mad Dancer at the San Diego Repertory Theater.

Daniel has received composing grants and commissions, including from Meet The Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity, Theater J, the  the San Diego Repertory Theater, and Theatre Company Jerusalem among others. 

Since moving to Israel in 2005 Daniel co-founded the new Eastern European musical group Trio Carpion, and released At the Black Sea on the Magda label.  He is currently performing with a variety of groups including Harel Shachal and the Ottomanim, an ensemble dedicated to classical and Roma music of Turkey. Daniel has performed and recorded with the Israeli pianist-composers Yitzhak Yedid, Daniel Galay, and performed Menachem Wiesenberg’s Suita Concertante for klezmer violin and classical violin with the Tel Aviv Soloists Ensemble. He is also currently performing in the Habimah production of Mireleh Efrat

Daniel currently teaches privately and has taught at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, and has studied many styles of music, including klezmer, Romanian, Arabic, Moroccan Andalusian, flamenco, Turkish, and Balkan.