Daniel Fardon (b.1991) is a British composer based in London. 

 

Daniel's work has received various awards including an Ivor Novello Award in 2020 for his Six Movements for string quartet. His music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, and commissioned and/or performed by internationally acclaimed ensembles including The London Symphony Orchestra, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (BCMG), The Britten Sinfonia, The Schubert Ensemble, Carducci Quartet, Psappha, Ligeti Quartet, Kokoro, Orkest de Ereprijs, HERMESensemble, Listenpony, CHROMA Ensemble, Castalian Quartet, Bloomsbury Quartet, and the Kaleidoscope Collective. Festival commissions and performances have included Cheltenham, Stratford-upon-Avon, Cambridge Festival of Ideas, Borough New Music, King's Lynn, The Little Missenden, CrossCurrents, Frontiers, and Flatpack.

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Highlights for 2023 include a double bill featuring Daniel's string quartet Six Movements, written for the Bloomsbury Quartet. On BBC Radio 3's In Tune, the quartet performed his music live in the studio following an interview with Sean Rafferty in anticipation of the quartet's return to the Wigmore Hall. Later that week, the Bloomsbury Quartet performed Six Movements in a lunchtime concert at the Wigmore as part of its 'Imagine Series'. Daniel's work for orchestra & live electronics AUGUST TUNE: Running Music was performed by the Purcell Symphony Orchestra in November 2023 at St John's Smith Square, conducted by Paul Mann, and subsequently at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire.

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In 2022, Daniel was commissioned by Coventry City of Culture and the Arts Council England to write a two-hour theatrical symphony for the Orchestra of the Swan, which formed part of a large-scale year-long project involving people from the community. The final work, Symphony of Us was performed three times in Coventry Cathedral, conducted by the composer, and was featured on BBC Midlands Today, and BBC Radio CWR.

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In November 2020, Daniel's string quartet Elements of Disco was premièred live on BBC Radio 3 from St David's Hall in Cardiff by the Carducci Quartet, commissioned by the Cheltenham Music Festival. Earlier in the year, his June Tune was performed by London Symphony Orchestra Musicians at LSO St Luke's in London.

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Prior to this, Daniel won the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize in 2018. He was the RPS Rosie Johnson Wigmore Hall Apprentice Composer for 2018/19, culminating in the world première of his string quartet by the Bloomsbury Quartet at the Wigmore Hall in July 2019.  Also in 2019, his Piano Quartet was premièred by the Kaleidoscope Chamber Collective at the Cheltenham Music Festival. Daniel's Preludes for Piano, commissioned by Listenpony, received multiple performances throughout 2018 and 2019 by pianist George Fu. A work for Clarinet and Saxophone duet with film was commissioned by Sounding Cities and received its première at a Bechstein Session at the Wigmore Hall in October 2019. 

 

Daniel was previously a composer on the London Symphony Orchestra’s Panufnik Scheme, which culminated in his work Flux for symphony orchestra being performed by the LSO. Daniel is also an LSO Soundhub Associate, which led to the première of his October Tune for sextet, subsequently released by the LSO on their YouTube channel. 

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As a graduate of the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and the University of Cambridge, Daniel's teachers included Richard Causton, Howard Skempton, and Errollyn Wallen. He went on to study for a PhD in Composition from the University of Birmingham, where he was supervised by Professor Michael Zev Gordon, fully funded by a College of Arts and Law Doctoral Scholarship.

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Daniel's music has been performed in a range of venues, such as The Wigmore Hall, LSO St Luke's, CBSO Centre, Elgar Concert Hall, West Road, St Giles' Cathedral, Barber Institute, Hoxton Hall, Centrala Birmingham, Playground Theatre London, greengrassi London, Lighthouse Poole, Pitville Pump Room Cheltenham, Regent Hall London, Great Hall Birmingham, and many Town Halls, churches, and chapels across the country.

 

Daniel is currently a visiting teacher at the Purcell School for Young Musicians. From 2015-19, he was a Teaching Associate at the University of Birmingham. Prior to this, he was Head of Piano for the Royal Leamington Spa Competitive Festival, and the president of the Darwin College Music Society at the University of Cambridge. 

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Daniel's work has been funded and supported by organisations and bodies including Arts Council England, the PRS Foundation, the Leverhulme Trust, the RVW trust, the National Lottery Community Fund, and the Helen Hamlyn Trust. 

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~ Updated January 2024.