About
Guitarist Daniel Lippel, called an “exciting soloist” (New York Times) and “precise and sensitive” (Boston Globe) has carved out a unique and diverse career that ranges through solo and chamber music performances, innovative commissioning and recording projects, and performances in diverse contexts. He has premiered more than one hundred new solo and chamber works, many written for him, recording several on the independent label he co-founded and directs, New Focus Recordings. Recent performance highlights include recitals at UC Davis, Le Poisson Rouge in New York, Sinus Ton Festival (Germany), National University of Colombia in Bogota, Lawrence University (Wisconsin), and the New York, Philadelphia, and Cleveland Classical Guitar Societies, featured solo performances at the Connecticut Guitar Festival, ZKM in Karlsruhe Germany with the SWR Experimental Studio Freiburg, MATA Festival, and WNYC's Greene Space, and chamber performances on the Ultima Festival (Norway), Dutch National Opera, Macau Music Festival (China), Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center, Ojai Festival, Ottawa Chamber Festival, Aspekte Festival (Salzburg), Kunst Universitaet Graz (Austria), Sydney Festival, Bard Festival, Alpenglow and Newburyport Chamber Music Festivals, and at Teatro Amazonas (Manaus, Brasil), Sibelius Academy (Finland), and Zankel and Weill Halls at Carnegie Hall. Lippel has been a member of the new music ensemble counter)induction since 2019, FretX duo with Mak Grgic since 2015, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) since 2006, and new music quartet Flexible Music from 2003, as well as a guest with many other ensembles including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New York New Music Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, New York City Ballet, Talea Ensemble, Either/Or Ensemble, Cantata Profana, Wavefield Ensemble, Dinosaur Annex, Axiom Ensemble, Classical Cafe, Cygnus Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, and Pink Noise Ensemble, in addition to performing with many chamber collaborators in smaller ensemble formations and orchestra part engagements with the Cleveland Orchestra, New York City Opera, and American Symphony Orchestra. Lippel has worked closely with many eminent composers including Mario Davidovsky, Ursula Mamlok, Nils Vigeland, and John Zorn, and collaborated on new works with several of the community's most active composers, including Dai Fujikura, Tyshawn Sorey, Reiko Fueting, Douglas Boyce, John Aylward, Christopher Trapani, Marcos Balter, Kyle Bartlett, Wang Lu, Peter Gilbert, Mikel Kuehn, Ken Ueno, John Link, Ryan Streber, Nathan Davis, and Du Yun. He has had the opportunity to perform chamber and ensemble music by Elliott Carter, Steve Reich, Olga Neuwirth, Charles Wuorinen, Kaija Saariaho, George Lewis, Louis Andriessen, and George Crumb with the composers in attendance. Lippel's recordings have garnered him critical acclaim from several publications including the New York Times, Boston Globe, Gramophone, American Record Guide, Chicago Reader, New Music Box, and Sequenza21. His work encompasses repertoire for both classical and electric guitars. In addition to the thirteen recordings he has released as a primary artist on New Focus, he appears on over forty recordings across many genres on several labels including Kairos, Bridge, SONY MUSIC/Minabel Records, Innova, Sono Luminus, Albany, Tzadik, Wergo, New Amsterdam, and New World, and as a producer and co-producer on several New Focus releases. Lippel performed on two contracts as a member of a Lincoln Center Presents main stage classical quintet on Holland America cruise lines, performing mixed programs in concerts off the coasts of ports on four continents. Other collaborations have included performances and recordings of pianist/composer Cory Smythe's music, Collage Project with bassist Aidan Plank and guitarist Dan Bruce, a duo of original and improvised music with guitarist/composer Alejandro Florez, a recording and tour with Will Mason's Happy Place, several years as a member of Adam Tully's Zvi Migdal Tango Ensemble, and multiple recordings and international tours and festivals with eclectic indie group Mice Parade. In commercial recording, Lippel was featured on the Elliot Goldenthal score for Netflix's "Our Souls at Night" and on the soundtrack for the film "The Longest Week."
As an educator, Lippel is particularly interested in demystifying the contemporary repertoire for guitarists, and the guitar for composers. He has given guitar masterclasses and presentations at many institutions including the Hanns Eisler Hochschule in Berlin, Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, National University of Colombia in Bogota, Sydney Conservatorium of Music (Australia), San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Cleveland Institute of Music, and Syracuse University, student composition residencies at UC San Diego, University of Oregon, and University of New Mexico, guest lecture presentations to composition departments at the Peabody Institute of Music, University of Texas at Austin, DePaul University, New York University, University of California at Davis, as well as a presentation to the 2016 Guitar Foundation of America conference on repertoire for guitar and electronics. He was on faculty at Bowling Green State University in Ohio teaching classical guitar from 1999-2001 and received the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the Manhattan School of Music, writing his dissertation on the guitar works of Mario Davidovsky. He was the winner of the Senior Guitar Division in the 2000 ASTA National Competition. His primary teachers have included David Starobin at Manhattan School of Music, Jason Vieaux and John Holmquist as part of his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Cleveland Institute of Music, Steve Aron as an undergraduate at Oberlin Conservatory, and David Leisner and Nicholas Goluses prior to college.
Lippel plays Augustine and D'Addario strings on a 1998 Robert Ruck guitar.
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Publications
- Synchronisms #10 and Festino: Seminal Works for Guitar by Mario Davidovsky (D.M.A. Dissertation 2006 Manhattan School of Music)
- A Guide to the Guitar Works of Poul Ruders (Classical Guitar 2004)
- An Introduction to Two Seminal Guitar Works by Mario Davidovsky (Soundboard 2015)
- Shifting Aesthetics (Guitars International 2010)