Paul Daniel began his musical career as a chorister at Coventry Cathedral and then won a music scholarship to King’s College, Cambridge, after which he studied conducting at the Guildhall School of Music. He went on to study with Franco Ferrara in Italy, and with Sir Adrian Boult and Sir Edward Downes in England. Between 1982 and 1987 he was a member of the music staff of English National Opera, becoming chief conductor in 1987 of the Music Factory, with which he had been associated since 1981. With this company he conducted operas by Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle and György Ligeti. Alongside his work in the opera house, he conducted orchestras in the United Kingdom and abroad, making his American début in 1988 with the London Sinfonietta.
Between 1990 and 1997 Daniel was chief conductor of the Leeds-based Opera North, succeeding the company’s founder David Lloyd-Jones. With Opera North he conducted several productions of unusual repertoire, such as Franz Schreker’s Der ferne Klang, Korngold’s Violanta, and Verdi’s Jérusalem, as well as major repertory pieces such as Verdi’s Don Carlos. During this time as conductor at Opera North, Daniel developed a good sense of operatic style, which stood him in strong stead when he moved back to the English National Opera as chief conductor between 1997 and 2005. Here he maintained his interest in contemporary music, conducting the première of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s The Silver Tassie in 2000.
Paul Daniel is an effective conductor who can turn his baton to a wide range of musical styles and eras, although he is most at home in the music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He has recorded extensively for the Naxos label, most notably the music of Sir William Walton, with several of his major works committed to disc including the two symphonies, and the violin, viola and cello concertos. Also of note for Naxos is his conducting of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra in Elgar’s Symphony No. 3 (in the completion by Anthony Payne) and Vaughan Williams’s ‘A Sea Symphony’. For Decca, Daniel has conducted Mendelssohn’s Elijah, with Bryn Terfel in the title role. His operatic recordings include a complete performance of Opera North’s production of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov (Chandos), and several recital discs featuring Lesley Garrett and Bryn Terfel, as well as the guitarist John Williams. An issue of particular interest is a varied programme devoted to the music of Sir Thomas Armstrong (Chandos).
© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — David Patmore (A–Z of Conductors, Naxos 8.558087–90).