Daniel A. Weitz (b. 2002) is a New York City/Baltimore-based composer and improviser whose work engages with themes of communication, embodiment, fragmentation, and the uncanny. Approaching music as a hyper-visual medium—one that possesses the capacity to evoke unique scenes within the vivid privacy of the imagination—his work is filled with puppet-like onomatopoeia, like the foley to a latent film. 

Daniel’s work has been performed by acclaimed ensembles such as The Rhythm Method, the Brazilian National Symphony, PinkNOISE, PHACE, TAK ensemble, W4RP, .abeceda [New Music Ensemble], members of DECODA, and the New York Youth Symphony Jazz Ensemble. An avid collaborator, he aims for a deep sense of shared creation in any creative partnership, whether writing for the concert stage or collaborating across disciplines. His music has been featured in festivals such as Inštitut .abeceda’s Bled Contemporary Week, Brasilia Orchestral Summit, Lake George Music Festival， New Music On the Point, Vienna Contemporary Composers Festival and Beacon New Music Festival. He is currently writing a piece for Airborne Extended, to be premiered in October of this year.

In addition to receiving Columbia University’s Charles S. Miller Award in music composition and the Richard & Brooke Kamin Rapaport Music Fellowship, Daniel has graduated with honors from Columbia College with a BA in music and physics, where he has had the immense privilege to study under Zosha Di Castri, Marcos Balter, Finola Merivale and William Dougherty. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in music composition with Du Yun at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

Alongside his practice as a composer, Daniel is an active cellist and improviser, recently performing as a member of the Westside Chamber Players 2025 season as well as entering a year-long collaboration with contemporary dancer Nadia Benes, together developing and performing a series of co-improvisatory works. 

When he is not writing or performing, Daniel spends his time working with children as well as people across various spectrums of physical and intellectual disability. He hopes to use his experience as a musician to bring the joys of live music to children and to those typically alienated from it, driven by the belief that no person in our society—whether under-privileged, isolated, disabled, sick, young, elderly, incarcerated, or for any other trivial reason—should be bereft of the transformative power that music holds. Currently, he works as a Teaching Artist for the Harmony Program, teaching violin, cello, and general music classes.

Bios For Programs · A Brief Statement On Teaching Philosophy

as of July 2025