Spartanburg Music Trail

David Daniels

David Daniels

David Daniels
Audio Samples


Blackberry Winter 111 143

Blackberry Winter 235 308

Blackberry Winter 304 336

Audio Tour: David Daniels

David Daniels is known for his superlative artistry, magnetic stage presence, and a voice of singular warmth and surpassing beauty. In the words of the New York Times, “To say that he is the most acclaimed countertenor of the day, perhaps the best ever, is to understate his achievement. He is simply a great singer.”

The son of Phyllis and Perry Daniels, beloved Spartanburg voice teachers, Daniels has starred in productions in many of the world’s most famous opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House (Covent Garden), Teatro alla Scala, the San Francisco Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Bavarian State Opera. He has been a soloist with such orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the English Concert, and he has sung solo recitals in the great concert halls of the world, from Carnegie Hall in New York to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and the Salle Gaveau in Paris.

Daniels has recorded extensively, in both operatic and art song repertoire, and in 2014 he premiered the title role in an opera written specifically for him, Theodore Morrison’s Oscar. In recognition of his recorded excellence as well as his expansion of the repertoire for countertenor, Gramophone magazine named Daniels a “Top Ten Trailblazer” in classical music.

—Miles Hoffman, nationally renowned violist, artistic director, and NPR music commentator


Interesting Fact

Daniels sings in a vocal range that is equivalent to a female contralto or mezzo soprano.

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